The War For Morrowind
by Gevaden
Summary: A war between the Tribunal and The Empire is raging, The reincarnation of Lord Nerevar leads Tribunal forces while a legendary breton leads the Empire.
1. Chapter 1

**Gevaden: I hope you enjoy this fic, if you have any problems with it please make suggestions in your review thanks.**

A priest entered the Palace of Vivec with news of the recent war. He spotted Vivec, what an amazing site Vivec was; he was nether Dark Elf or High Elf. His skin changed colour right down middle.

"What do you want my child?" asked Vivec.

"I come with bad news my lord." He said in a cowering tone.

"What is this news?"

"The Nerevarine is worried about our ability to win the war, he says that if the Empire keep progressing at this rate they will reach the walls of Vivec in three months. He says we have only one choice if we can win my lord."

"What is this choice?"

"We must convince the Breton to fight for us sir, the Nerevarine is convinced that the Breton could turn the tide of this war."

"The Breton you speak of, you speak of Ryan do you not?"

"Yes my lord."

"Then why are you here, you should be getting him to fight for us."

"I have tried my lord, he refuses to fight for either side my lord."

"Why will he not fight for us? What did you offer him?"

"He refuses to fight for us because he claims that he was refused a place in the temple some years ago. I offered him six hundred thousand drakes a month plus his fair share of spoils but he refused still."

"I shall say this once priest, listen carefully. I want you to take a dozen Ordinators and go to the Breton, ask him to join again but if he refuses you are to kill him and burn his plantation to the ground, bring the Duke with you, his presence will convince Ryan just how much we need him." Said Vivec before turning his back on the priest.

&&&

Duke Dren, the priest and a dozen Ordinators walked into the Bretons plantation, it was killing Dren to be here to plead the Breton to join them, as this plantation was once his brothers before the Breton killed him and took it.

They walked up to Ryan's house and spotted his wife, a beautiful Nord carrying their baby daughter.

The priest removed his helmet and asked the Nord woman for Ryan's presence, she got up and walked inside the house where she found her husband writing up something.

"Ryan, Dren is outside with a priest and a dozen Ordinators make them leave, they have bothered us enough." She said with a soft voice. Ryan rose and walked outside to the visitors.

"Why are you here?" he asked, running his hand through his long blonde hair. Dren stepped forward.

"We have come to ask you, no plead with you to help us fight against the empire, Vivec is offering you double what he offered last time." Said Dren falling to one knee, containing his rising rage.

"I have no reason to fight for Vivec, but if he comes here personally then I shall consider it." He said with a blank face. Dren couldn't hold in his anger anymore, he got up and pointed a finger at Ryan's house.

"Fight for us you N'wah or we shall burn this place to the ground!" as you can guess Ryan did not take kindly to the threat, he charged up a spell of shock spell and blasted Dren, Dren fell to his knees in pain. The Ordinators rushed at Ryan who leapt into the air far to high for them to hit him, he stole Dren's sword and stabbed an Ordinator in the back before taking his shield. An Ordinator tried to slam Ryan on the head with his mace but Ryan used the shield to defend himself and then he slid the sword under the shield as it still up a bit and he jabbed the Ordinator in the stomach, it keeled over and died.

The rest tried to kill him but he jumped around and took them out one by one until only two remained, then Ryan summoned a Dremora Lord, a Dremora and a Winged Twilight to distract them while he simply walked over and with one quick slash gutted them both.

"Priest, you shall run to Vivec and tell him that I fight for the Empire!" Ryan was inhaling great amounts of air in a failing attempt to calm down. The Priest nodded a little before running.

Ryan looked to Dren who had grabbed an Ebony Mace and was running at Ryan with murderous intents. Ryan flicked a leg up quickly and smashed Dren in the jaw quickly; the Dunmer fell on his back before getting up but it was pointless as a spear held by the Dremora Lord skewered him.

Ryan ran into the house and told his wife to go to her sisters in Caldera, if the war gets anywhere near she is to go to the East Empire Company mine on Solstheim, Ryan had a house there and was very good friends with Falco, she would be safe there.

Ryan gathered his soldiers that defended his plantation, his equipment and headed for the Imperial Fort outside Balmora.

&&&

Vivec could tell that his priest had failed him, but he did not know the damage until the Priest arrived at the temple.

"I can foresee the Breton leading the Imperial troops here to Vivec, he shall be at the steps of my temple, and as he approaches my doors a wild arrow will hit him in the back, who shot it I cannot tell, if he survives I cannot tell but I when he is hit I shall strike him down myself, send for Stendarr's Hammer in Mournhold, I want to be ready." Said Vivec, worried for his people.

"My lord, is this for certain?" asked the Priest.

"Nothing is certain anymore, the prophecy was that the Nerevarine would force the empire out of Morrowind but now it would seem that the Nerevarine is failing to bring about this."

"My Lord, what would happen if the Breton and the Nerevarine were to fight?"

"I expect the Nerevarine would be triumphant, but I am unsure as the Breton has beaten the odds a hundred times."

"If the Nerevarine did win, then the morale of the Empire troops would be battered. They would be leaderless in a sense, it could be a turning point in the war! It could be what we need!"

"We shall try your idea, but if the Nerevarine dies then they will breach the walls of Vivec. The Ordinators will be outnumber and beaten, I shall be outnumbered and beaten."

"My Lord, with the Hammer in hand you shall smote your foes!"

"How many can I strike down before I myself am stricken down?"

"You shall not be my lord! We can call for more troops from Almalexia, the high Ordinators will strike down many of the Imperial N'Wahs."

"Mournhold will not last the war, I fear for Almalexia."

&&&

It was early the early that night when Ryan and his fifty men reached their destination, they were welcomed with open arms. The champion came to speak to Ryan.

"Ryan, does this mean what I think it does? Or are you hear to kill us without us knowing it?" he said with a smile.

"I am here to help you fight the Tribunal, but tell me how did Duke Dren escape Ebonheart, last time I checked it was controlled by the Empire." Said Ryan a little jokingly.

"He was transported out by magic. There was nothing we could do." Replied the Fort Moonmoth Champion."

"Well then, lets get to work."

**Gevaden: I know the first chapter is short, but I only wanted this chapter to give an idea of what's going on. If you have any problems please tell me. **


	2. Chapter 2

Gevaden:

**I know I have some mistakes in chap 1 (Like referring to the Nerevarine as the Nerevar or Almalexia as Almelixa) I'm fixing them so please be patient.**

**I know its taken along time for me to post but I was in something called EYP which stands for European Youth Parliament and over the three days it took place I got very little sleep.**

Ryan was ushered into a Fort Moonmoth and brought to a small room with a few other nervous looking guards.

"Is the Morale this low in the whole base?" asked Ryan when he noticed the worried men.

"No, no there worried because there guarding a werewolf." Said Larrius. This peaked Ryan's interest.

"May I see this creature?" asked the legendary Breton.

"Sure, she's held in place perfectly."

"So why the guards?"

"Just a precaution, I assure you." Said Larrius Varro leading Ryan into a square room with all the furniture removed to accommodate the Werewolf that had been chained in place. Ryan was able to walk right up to the beast without it even looking at him. Then he noticed why, the chains at its wrists and waist holding it in place was enchanted, probably paralysing.

"Do the chains paralyse the wolf?" asked Ryan.

"Yes, she decided to have herself chained up for safety reasons." Replied the captain, hiding his obvious fear for the creature.

"What's the woman's name?" Ryan said to give the captain a topic that would give him a chance to hide his fear.

"Her name is Aoku The Cursed." Said the champion.

"I'll take it she known as cursed because of her Werewolf infection." Said Ryan as he went to touch her cheek.

"No its actually because she has a rare skin infection that causes her skin to produce a layer of thin poison that kills anyone that touches her." Said Varro testing to see if Ryan would pull his hand away from her cheek.

"Funny, very funny." Ryan didn't pause the slightest bit, he removed his glove and touched the werewolf skin.

"Either way she has been an invaluable soldier in the fight against the tribunal." Said the champion.

"And is that as a person or a werewolf." Said Ryan putting his glove back on his hand, thinking it best not to treat her as a specimen.

"Both to be fair to her, she has terrorized the Dark elves with her destructive magicka and been a saint to ours with her restoration." Replied Varro while fixing his belt.

"I want her." Said Ryan.

"Ryan please you're a married man with a child." Said Varro taken back by Ryan's unusual behaviour.

"I want her to travel and fight with my troop you pervert." Said Ryan with a boyish scowl.

"Oh, that makes much more sense." Said Varro giving out a sigh. Suddenly a guard burst in through the door.

"Sir, Vvardenfell has been seen leaving Vivec with to many people to be safe." Said the soldier standing with a straight back.

"Thank you, now leave us." Said the Champion.

"Vvardenfell, I known that name but I can't place it." Said Ryan running his hand through his hair.

"Vvardenfell is a female Nord with talent, made famous a while ago for killing a monster in her home town right here in Balmora, and she's you first assignment."

"I'll choose to do it if I want to, what is it."

"Kill her." Said Varro, Ryan paused to think.

Vvardenfell was looking out over the hills to check for anything out of the ordinary, but everything checked out. They preceded slowly, Vvardenfell and the Ordinators that followed her they were to strike Caldera which would hopefully cause the Balmora guards would go as reinforcements, while the city was relatively empty it would be taken over by the Dunmer, and with the take over House Hlaalu would be forced to join the Tribunal or die.

Balmora was Vvardenfell's home town, she didn't feel very good about tricking it into having it abandoned but it was for the greater good that the Dunmer take it.

"M'am, may I ask as to which direction we will take?" asked an Ordinator.

"North, towards Ald'Ruhn and we'll turn west at the last second and come at them, the Imperial guard will prove little hassle for us. If things go really well we might end up with two more cities at the end of the day."

"Do you think it is wise to leave Vivec? With the Nerevarine thinking that the Empire might attack?"

"I believe Vivec will be okay for a few days." as she said this she felt like she was being watched. And she was, someone was watching them from a behind a large rock up on a cliff, the character started to circle around the rock and sneak down the cliff before shouting.

"They say the Empire is massing a huge army to the extreme east!" which was stupid as they Sardith Mora was the only Empire controlled city and the Tribunal had taken that some time ago.

"Only if your staring from the west." Replied Vvardenfell, it seemed to the Ordinators that the two were speaking a code. Which was confirmed when the two shook hands, the new comer was a Dunmer woman wearing a full suit of glass armour and had a Daedric Wakazashi held at her side. The woman looked to the Ordinators.

"I am Shardae, a nightblade sent by lady Almalexia to give you aid just encase something unexpected happens, your leader Vvardenfell expected me hence the code." She said with a voice with suggested she was in her twenties, they couldn't see her very well as she wore a helmet which blocked view of her face.

"We better press on." Said Vvardenfell.

"Indeed." Replied Shardae. And they started running.

Meanwhile something unexpected in Caldera was happening; heroes loyal to the empire were meeting up to plan a strike on Ald'Ruhn. The Heroes sat around a table and introduced themselves.

"I am known as Sabre, I am a Knight and I use either this Ebony Broadsword or my Demon Longbow." Said the first of them, a Nord wearing Royal guard armour and carrying a goblin shield.

"I am Ershedro, it is said my dual longs are the strongest weapons in all the land! I shall crush the skull of Vivec with them!" said a warrior with voice full of Morale and zeal.

"I am Vjad! And I swore allegiance to the Empire and I shall not stop fighting the Dunmer until the heart of Vivec stops or mine does!" said a Nord with a Nordic Battle Silver Battle axe, Imperial Silver Cuirass, Imperial Steel Boots, Pauldrons, Gauntlets, Greaves. He had white hair and a face with some facial hair growing.

The three adventures knew each other indirectly and came together through friends and recommendations; each had a loyal band of followers that would be considered their armies.

"So what's the plan?" asked Ershedro.

"We are going to do one of two things, either strike Ald'Ruhn or we could use information I know." Replied Vjad.

"And what's the information?" asked Ershedro.

"Have you both heard of a Breton named Ryan?" The two nodded.

"He joined the Empire last night and is off on an assignment already, to intercept an expected attack."

"So what should we do with this information?" asked Sabre.

"The group he's to intercept came from Vivec, which means the city will be low on defenders, unless they army is just recruits but if it is then why would Ryan have been sent to intercept."

"You want us to attack the City of Vivec!" said Ershedro.

"Basically yeah, we could hit Vivec hard, even if we die it will be left open to attack from anyone else! It could be the end of the war!" said Vjad

"Well then let go!" shouted Ershedro.

"Not so fast, such an assault requires a lot of thought." Said Sabre deep in thought.

"Tell me, how do you know all this Vjad?" asked Ershedro.

"He sent me here to tell you, I'm his first officer." Said Vjad with a little 'are you surprised' smile.

Vvardenfell was asleep but she was woken up noise out side. She looked around her make shift tent, their was some supplies, her armour, a fire suddenly she thought.

"Did I start a fire before going to sleep…no I don't think so…. hold on my tent is on fire, MY TENT IS ON FIRE!" she rolled away from the fire grabbed her gear and put it on, she looked outside and found a fight going on. She to the tent next to hers to find her friend Turv, an Ordinator. She found that he was still drowsy. She looked at his Ordinator gear, and noticed glass gear next to it.

"Why is your glass gear with you?"

"I prefer it, can I wear it instead?"

"I don't care we are under attack!" she ran outside to find the Imperial guard and some other group attacking them. She pulled out her short sword and stabbed an Imperial soldier he fell quickly. She ran around fighting off the attackers then she noticed something very odd, one of Almalexia's hands was walking around looking for something.

She ran over and got his attention.

"Can I help you?" she asked confused at this persons presence.

"Are you Vvardenfell?" he asked.

"Yes why?" suddenly he smashed her in the face with his shield, he had inhuman strength and she flew through the air and landed hard. She looked up at the character and watched as he ran with lightning fast speed to were she was and he placed a boot on her chest, she was pinned down and had dropped her weapon when she was hit.

She looked at the boot on her chest, it was pressing down really hard. It was a boot of blinding speed, which explained his speed, but what about his strength?

"Vvardenfell, sword of the Tribunal, I am hear to end your life." He said with a cold voice.

The fight going on around the two stopped and all the soldiers stopped to watch the fight, knowing that whomever won this fight won the battle basically.

Turv ran through the crowd and jumped on the magically geared attacker, he held on tight and stabbed the guy in the shoulder with a dagger he found on the floor.

The attacker fell to one knee and rolled away, he pulled out the dagger and threw it away. The attacker was Ryan, but Turv and Vvardenfell didn't know this.

He stared at Turv and watched as he gave Vvardenfell a hand in getting up. Ryan cast a spell to heal his wound. Then drew his Her Ebony Scimitar before walking over to the two who prepared for the attack.

Turv drew his glass long sword and ran at Ryan, as he approached Ryan suddenly Ryan ran behind him with his super speed, Turv spun around and swung at Ryan's neck with his sword, Ryan lent back to avoid the sword before swinging his sword at Turv, Turv blocked it with his shield but he was forced to keep it held above his head as Ryan lashed his sword down again and again.

Vvardenfell watched the two fight and knew that know it was her turn to save Turv, she ran in and stabbed at Ryan who blocked with his own shield, the two came at Ryan from opposite sides, but he was able to fight the two with the aid of his boots and right glove that gave him his inhuman strength. Ryan was a warrior of Legendary skill made even better by the Enchantments of his Armour and weapons.

Ryan suddenly flicked out a spear and swung it at Turv who blocked it. Ryan swung the spear onto his shoulders at position it so he could keep it steady at the base of his neck. He jabbed it at Vvardenfell, who was able to dodge to the left and right as it came at her, the he lowered his head and swung it around, it just cut Turv in the face. He wasn't hurt very much but the sudden pain was a surprise and he found that he couldn't move. It was up to Vvardenfell.

The crown had by now made a circle around the fighters and were chanting for their champion whomever it maybe.

Vvardenfell moved back a bit and watched as her attacker did something very odd. He stabbed his spear into the floor and then took off his gloves, then his Pauldrons, then his helmet. She recognised his face instantly, it was Ryan, he spent a lot of time in Balmora. Suddenly she felt a knot in her stomach, she wished he had never taken off the helmet, she could handle the icy stare of the helmet but not the beautiful and emotionless face of Ryan. She heard stories about him, people said that he killed Ordinators for fun, he spent months in the frozen plains of Solstheim in nothing but his underpants just to practice survival, this was a stone cold killer but people who knew him personally said that he was a really nice guy, and cared very little for the Tribunal or The Empire, he cared for The Skoal Village in Solstheim who had helped him when he was a wanted convict for robbing the Vaults in Vivec, he cared for his family and friends and could be pulled to either side of the war under the right circumstances.

She decided not to drop her weapon, as she didn't know what he had up his sleeve. She ran him but was caught off guard when he flashed forward ward and cracked his fist off her face, she fell back and crashed into the crowd who just pushed her towards him, she jumped for her weapon that she had dropped again, and started to slice at his chest, he flashed around her and grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her feet, he threw her forward and she crashed into Turv who was starting to move again.

The two got up and ran at the attacker, he jumped up but Turv jumped to meet him, Ryan grabbed Turv's sword fist in mid-air but Turv attacked Ryan with his shield. Ryan was Stunned and fell to a knee, Vvardenfell grabbed the Ebony sword that was lying next to the spear and held it to his neck, Turv landed next to her and she gave him a kind of 'good job' smile and nod. She was about to slice when his neck and end this horrible fight when she found a Dremora standing at her side.

"What the…" she was thrown off guard when it pulled out a Daedric Mace and she had to defend herself.

"Damn, I missed the chance to kill him." she thought to herself. She threw the sword aside and pulled out a trusty short sword, she stabbed at the Dremora and the two clashed for a little while. She eventually killed the creature and turned to see Ryan holding Turv over his head, Ryan's nose was bleeding heavily but he didn't pay attention to it, he pulled Turv down onto his raised knee. Vvardenfell heard something crack as the Knee made contact with Turv's back. Ryan just dropped Turv on the floor.

"I killed him quickly and you shall have the same faith." Ryan said as he walked forward, Vvardenfell suddenly swung her sword at Ryan's face, sadly she had swung to soon and it only cut his cheek.

Ryan grabbed her around the neck, his hand was like a vice grip. He smashed his knee into Vvardenfell's stomach and as her ear was next to his mouth he whispered.

"He's alive but unconscious. He will be okay if you can get him healed." He whispered. She was sort of surprised, was Ryan a fake or was he actually a nice guy.

"I shall give you this one chance to join me Vvardenfell, or else you die now." Ryan said loudly to get the so the soldiers would know of the choice she had to make.

**Gevaden: That's the second chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! **


	3. Chapter 3

Gevaden: Well I'm back with another chapter, when last you read Ryan had Vvardenfell grabbed around the throat (you're right Vvardenfell (author) its love at first sight!) and was giving her an ultimatum, join him or die!

**A band of heroes were considering what to do, attack Vivec or Ald'Ruhn.**

**With all this action it looks like a lot will happen in this chapter!**

Vvardenfell's legs were dangling and her hands were holding the glove that was holding her by the throat. She looked over at Turv, if she was to save him she had to join Ryan, but if she did join Ryan she would be turning on the Tribunal and it would only be a matter of time before they find out.

Tears ran down her face as it got harder to breathe and she was just able to choke out.

"Fine, I'll join you." She sobbed hard. Ryan placed her down gently, she expected a snide remark or something but nothing came, she looked around at the Ordinators, they were removing their helmets in shock, one got really angry and ran at her.

"Traitorous N'wah!" he held his mace up high as he went to swing for her head but Ryan caught the mace and smashed it down on the mans head. The Ordinators were not going down without a fight, they all started fighting again, Ryan drew his scimitar and started fighting, Vvardenfell sat on her knees and covered her face and cried for awhile before crawling over to Turv.

Shardae watched from a distance before disappearing into the shadows and heading to Vivec to tell the Tribunal what had happened.

"This is a very nasty twist, I cannot believe she has betrayed us." Thought Shardae as she ran through the plains.

When the fighting was over Ryan walked up behind Vvardenfell who was crying over Turv, Ryan cast a spell to heal Turv then tied chains around Vvardenfell's hands.

"Is this necessary? Haven't you humiliated me enough?" asked Vvardenfell.

"Of course, I don't want you attacking me." Said Ryan calmly. Ryan told the troops to go to back to the fort and tell Varro what had happened; Ryan was going to Caldera, Varro would know where to find him.

&&&&&&&

Almalexia stood in her round room, staring at her pride and joy, her hands. But her attention was focused on a particular person, Moonstar, a Dunmer who she had taken in years ago after a werewolf bit him, which was what inspired his name.

"Moonstar, come to me." She said with a wave of her hand. He walked over in his suit of her hands armour.

"Yes my lady of mercy?" he asked, happy at the sight of the divine being he could call his mother.

"Can you do me a favour?"

"Of course, anything you ask?"

"I have seen something troubling."

"Yes my benevolent one."

"There is a man who has a very important role in the war, and he has done something, gotten something or someone."

"Yes."

"I want you to find the Breton they call Ryan."

"Yes I know of him."

"He desecrates me with the armour he wears, as it is the armour of my hands."

"He wears it? That N'wah!"

"Yes, retrieve the armour for me, and separate him from his new thing would you?"

"Of course my lady, anything for you, I just wish I didn't have to leave your presence."

"Your love for me is as flattering as ever. Take this it will aid you…" She handed him a ring of some sort.

"…That is a ring that belonged to Ryan's father, it is known as The Ring Of The Moon, for this can create artificial moonlight." She continued.

"So I can transform into a werewolf at will. Why did his father create such a weapon?" asked Moonstar as he fiddled with the ring.

"His father was a werewolf and a mighty warrior just like you." She said. He turned around and started to walk, he'd have to fight the Royal Guard on his way out but they would be no match for his power.

&&&&&&&

Sabre, Vjad and Ershedro were on horseback, they had left their armies in Caldera as a way of bulking up the defences. They were headed to the high fane in Vivec, their mission was to slowly assassinate the members of the temple. They would seek shelter in the Morag Tong hide out; Ryan and Vjad were both respected members of the organisation.

The three were taking at a slow pace and were casually chatting and generally getting to know each other a bit better.

"So run this plan by me again, just so I can understand how truly insane we must be!" said Ershedro.

"We are going to live in Vivec while slowly assassinating religious figures which will devastate the Tribunal morale and give us the edge we need to win the war." Replied Vjad.

"Ohh that's grand, now that know that were all completely crazy." Said Ershedro.

"What's wrong with the plan?" asked Sabre.

"Well we will have Ordinators everywhere, we are basically going into a suicide mission. Its absolutely insane."

"That's why it will work, it's the very last thing they expect." Replied Vjad.

As they went along with no bothers they found a problem, who would they assassinate first?

"I think we should target a major figure first! It will leave the temple leaderless!" said Vjad

"No no no, we should kill someone small, and slowly empty their lowly priests so that the big guys have to make themselves known the general populace to reassure them that they have the situation under control." Said Sabre.

"Lets just kill Saryoni, that's a crazy idea." Said Ershedro, thinking he must be crazy to go with these mad men.

"Excellent idea Ershedro!" the two said in unison.

"No, you see I was taking the piss out of you two, it was a joke!"

"No, it's a brilliant idea, the temple will be practically beaten!" said Vjad.

"May the Gods have mercy on my soul!" he said with his hands in his face. Then he realised he was a mighty warrior with powerful weapons and suddenly he felt like he could kill every Ordinator on his own.

"Ershedro, don't think of it as insanity, think of it as patriotism." Said Vjad.

"You're right, you're damn right!" said Ershedro before racing ahead.

&&&&&&&

Vvardenfell was so embarrassed; she was being pulled through the gates of Caldera by someone that looked like one of Almalexia's hands. Hers hand were chained together so it looked like she was a serious criminal, Ryan got his key to the house they were entering, which was a house next to the Mages Guild, the house used to belong to a Clothier but the owner was in an 'Accident' and Ryan bought the property and turned into his personal home. She could hear two women talking about her Ryan.

"Ohh that Ryan is at it again." Said a woman with long brown hair.

"At what again?" said one with long black hair.

"Before his adventuring days and bein' a general of his private army he used to bring his fathers maid here and make an awful racket all night long."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, and he was fierce into the old Cyrodilic Brandy! He was an awful drunk. Constantly making an ass of himself. But he fixed himself up proper and made himself a legend, I guess ye can't shake bad habits."

"A life of sex and brandy, not bad if you ask me." Said the black haired one before they both burst into laughter and walked to a shop.

"Hmm…Ryan was an alcoholic, I might be able to use that to my advantage!" she thought before being pulled into the house. The bottom floor was full of armour and weapons! It was an amazing sight, he had magic weapons and Daedric weapons and everything, there were books about the stuff he had here, The Staff Of Magnus, The Warlock's Ring. And then she saw a disturbing sight, Ordinator helmets lined up along a shelf like trophies. There was even two or three High Ordinator helmets.

Well she knew now that the rumour of his Ordinator hunting was true.

Ryan took her weapons from her sides and threw them onto a table covered in beautiful clothes.

"I'm about to undo your chains, I expect you won't try anything stupid." Ryan said with his emotionless voice. She just nodded. When the chains were off she rubbed her sore arms. She sat down but before she had a chance to rest he poked her shoulder to get her attention.

"I'm going upstairs to change, there is some clothes on the table there if you want to change too." He said calmly. She looked at the clothes on the table; they were lovely so she quickly put them on then looked for a small dagger she could hide.

She eventually spotted a glass jink blade that would do the job for now; if he let his guard down she might get a chance to kill him. He came down a moment later in Extravagant clothing, he threw her a small bag, which she caught.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Gold, I don't want you to think you're a prisoner, you're free to leave whenever you want."

"Then why did you bring me hear?"

"Hopefully we could spend a few days together and gain some trust, I made the mistake of not gaining someone's trust before and he took that knife, hid it in his clothes and stabbed me while I slept." He pointed to a Daedric dagger. She couldn't help but think that it was a lot like her idea, although she had a glass jink blade.

"Must have left a nasty scar." She pointed out. He turned around and lifted his shirt to reveal a wound in his back just a bit off his spine.

"It won't heal for some reason." He sighed.

"How did you survive?" she asked, genuinely interested.

"This amulet..." He said while picking out one of several amulets from around his neck. "…Is constantly healing me a little, the joys of powerful enchantments."

&&&&&&&

Zebeyna sat in wait in Ald'Ruhn. She was waiting for an amulet of her own but hers wasn't for healing, hers was for chameleon. She was to strike the Empire hard by assassinating people in Ebonheart, which would hopefully allow an easy take over from Vivec.

But something wasn't right, she had noticed people watching her and the man that was supposed to be giving her the amulet was taking a very long time to find it.

She looked around for the best way out if things did get out of control, it looked like she should just make a clear jump for the door. When the attendant came out to give her the amulet he didn't have it, he had a Daedric axe. He swung it at her head but she was able to duck, this guy might have a decent weapon but he wasn't able to use it well. A man near her who had been reading a book dropped it and took out a hammer. The two were rushing her, she pulled out her Daedric Wakazashi and drove it deep into the neck of the man that had the hammer, the one with the axe hit her in the head from behind with the handle of the axe, she rolled to safety before leaping up and preparing to attack again. He swung it at her but she easily dodged. She kicked him in the stomach and as he crouched over she took her Wakazashi to him.

"Damn assassins." She said. She walked into the backroom and saw the real storeowner lying on the floor and he had been recently killed. She looked around and found the amulet. She left the city with a robe covering face from vision.

&&&&&&&

Sparhawk stood at a door, he was eves dropping on a conversation between Varro and a soldier from Ryan's army.

"What do mean she's alive! I ordered Ryan to kill her!" shouted Varro.

"What's your point? Ryan didn't want to kill her, he wants her help in the war, she has talent on the battlefield."

"That's why she should be dead! Do I need to go and kill her myself!"

"I'd love to see you try! In fact I bet every soldier that knows Ryan would pay good money to see you try that!"

"You lot are all the same! Have you no care for the Empire?"

"No, not really." Said the soldier.

"Where's Ryan gone?"

"Caldera."

Sparhawk left the door at that. He had his equipment, his bloodmoon Nordic leather armour and his two Nordic Broadswords. The Empire wasn't doing Sparhawk any favours, he joined the legion to fight and hopefully get a chance to avenge his father, while Ryan fight the tribunal the Empire was just bulking up the defences in each city while sending mercenary's to take places over.

&&&&&&&

Vvardenfell couldn't sleep, she was in the bed upstairs, Ryan took a chair downstairs, which was pretty nice of him, but the last few days had been so strange. Her live had taken a dramatic turn. She got up and put on her robe, her Jink blade was ready, she snuck down stairs and saw Ryan sleeping. As she put the blade to his neck there was a knock at the door, by reaction she dropped the blade and snuck around the counter and hid. She heard Ryan getting up and answering the door.

"Ryan, I ordered you to kill the girl not bring her here to gain her confidence!"

Said an unfamiliar voice.

"Why did you bring a dozen guards?" Said Ryan

"If you won't kill her then these guys will." Said the voice, she heard feet pounding into the room. Two of them came around the counter and saw Vvardenfell.

"Found 'er bosch!" said one with an odd accent. He grabbed her by the arm and brought her up. He raised his sword to thrust down her neck but Ryan dashed across the room and twisted the guard's arm down so the sword was at the guard's throat. But instead of stabbing the guard Ryan just kicked him in the balls.

"Ryan stand down! She's a dangerous Tribunal agent!" said Varro.

"Well she's under my protection!" he said ushering the men out of his home. "I would suggest you be careful Varro, I'm not fighting the Tribunal for you but piss me off and I'm not fighting for the Empire at all!" Ryan had a finger pointed at Varro.

"Outside men! Lets get back to Moonmoth." Said Varro, knowing he was beaten. When they were gone Ryan looked at Vvardenfell.

"Thanks for that Ryan, I guess your not so bad." Said Vvardenfell.

"Why were you hiding back there?" he asked.

"I came down for some…" she spotted a bottle of Sujamma and picked it up. "Sujamma, and when I heard the knock I got a fright so I dashed behind the counter." She said rubbing a hand along the counter.

"That's a lie. But I don't really care right now." He said before picking the Jink blade and tossing it to her. "Don't hide that in your robe, it looks a male appendage." He said before sitting down again. She went upstairs feeling defeated, but she had a new interest in Ryan that wasn't because he was a legendary hero…he was possibly a new friend.

&&&&&&&

Sabre, Vjad and Ershedro walked slowly across the bridge to that lead to the High Fane, there was an eerie Silence and they hadn't seen a single Ordinator. Before they reached the door they spotted something very out of place.

"Em guys, we have a problem!" said Sabre. The other two turned to see the werewolf.

"That explains a lot!" said Ershedro after taking out his two Longs. The beast jumped up at him and he swung his weapons but it was too fast and it knocked them down with its claws. The other two gave him a hand fighting it but it was too fast and kept jumping around, it wasn't staying the one place for long and it struck them hard every now and then.

"The sun will be up in a few minutes, if we can just run for now we might be able to kill it in its humanoid form." Said Ershedro.

"Excellent advise." Said Vjad jumping over a wall and landing on a gate that allowed water to spew out. Sabre ran over the bridge and once he was far away he turned to keep an eye on the creature. Ershedro was running but it caught him and knocked him to the floor, he swung around and gave it the only decent hit it took through out the fight.

He spotted the sun coming up and it ran out of view.

"Quick we can get it now!" shouted Ershedro. They followed it through a door but when they got in they found no werewolf, just Ordinators, too many of them, they tried to run but found themselves surrounded.

"I place you under arrest as prisoners of war!" said Saryoni, their target. The Ordinators closed in put the three heroes were not going down without a fight.

&&&&&&&

Jaros, the new Thirsk Chieftain, watched the Ordinators attack the Imperial base, he had several men at his back.

"So the war comes here, prepare for war my brethren." Said the chief. Walking down to fort frostmoth where Ordinators and Imperial soldiers clashed it out.

One Ordinator cracked his mace down on the head of an Imperial soldier, he watched with satisfaction as the soldier fell to the floor, the Ordinator didn't see the Nord come from behind and stab him.

While the Ordinators had the advantage a while ago, the aid of the Nords was more then what the Imperials needed to defeat the Tribunal invaders.

"Thanks for your help!" said a random soldier to Jaros.

"We have lived in peace, but we shall not allow war to tear the land apart. The Nords will help you fight these Dark Elves." Said Jaros with an out stretched hand. The two-shook hands and an alliance was formed.

&&&&&&

A priest passed through Ghost Gate, it wasn't needed anymore. He walked a few feet passed the gate a starred on awe. He had heard that the entire mountain had collapsed but he never thought it was like this, the place no longer had a evil taint to it, the place had a nice serenity to it, the sky was blue and little traces of grass were starting to show, perhaps the taint of Doguth Ur could be stopped after all.

&&&&&&

Vivec stood in his palace, his advisors stood around him.

"Why am I disturbed?" he asked.

"The Ordinators have captured three assassins." Said one.

"Assassins you say?" he replied.

"Yes, we think they were after Saryoni. One of them was someone we know." The character said again.

"Who was it my priest?" asked Vivec.

"It was Vjad my lord."

"Ah yes, the right hand of the Breton."

"Indeed, we think an execution is in order, do you agree?" asked the priest with a sneer.

"Of course not!" said Vivec.

"Why not?" asked the priest, somewhat confused.

"That would bring the Breton down on top of us with all the anger he possesses and with the Ordinators currently so distracted and the Nerevarine so far away we would be over run. We must use this one wisely, send out Selione with an aid and have him challenge the Breton, if the Breton does survive then he shall know of the prisoner and he shall come, but he will be most definitely be weakened, nobody could fight Selione and come out in good condition."

"My lord, would Saryoni approve?" asked the priest.

"I imagine he would think a battle between his son and the Breton would keep him happy, especially as I have a special present for the Selione that will give him great aid." Said Vivec.

"What is it?" asked another priest.

"The Helm of Ignatius." Said Vivec.

"I've never heard of it." Said the priest.

"When I was a mere man it was considered to be a great relic, a weapon that could turn the tide of a war. It will give Selione the skill and magicka to strike down the Breton."

"Why des the Nerevarine not use it?" asked a third priest.

"Because it might make him to powerful to be controlled, I have seen into his heart and there is a fire burning inside him that could bring this city down in a blaze. So I shall give it to the Tribunals second most skilled warrior."

&&&&&&

It was the middle of the day in Caldera, Sparhawk was walking into the town, and it was his last assignment for Varro. He was to escort a lovely lady named Aoku to Ryan. She seemed lovely and they had gotten on very well, but Sparhawk was confused when men thanked the gods that she was leaving. She must have caused a little mischief.

The two walked into town at a good time in the day and walked up to Ryan's house. Aoku gave a knock and soon enough Ryan answered.

"Can I help you?" Ryan asked.

"I am Aoku, we sort of met in Fort Moonmoth." She said.

"Ooh yes, do come in, and you are?" he asked looking at Sparhawk.

"I am Sparhawk, I joined the Imperial Legion sometime ago in the hopes of getting a chance to avenge my father but I haven't seen the battlefield much, I was hoping that I might join you?"

"I'll take your request into consideration, I always need an extra hand." Said Ryan ushering him into the house.

"Things are going to get cramped in here." Ryan said, knowing that this house had one bed and now four people.

Gevaden: That's chap 3 I hope you enjoyed it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Gevaden: Here's chapter 4! I started writing this chapter just after I posted Chapter 3 so I can get my chapters posted quickly just for you.**

Ryan and Sparhawk slept quietly. Vvardenfell couldn't sleep and a growling she heard had caught her attention, when she went to investigate she found a werewolf, it wasn't moving but when she saw it she instinctively summoned a bound knife. She didn't attack it when she realised that it was Aoku, she wasn't positive that it was her but a gut feeling said it was.

Suddenly someone started ferociously knocking on the door and was shouting

"Ryan wake up the Tribunals coming!" Ryan ran to the door and swung it open; it was his guards, although most people considered them to be a personal army because of their numbers. Ryan ran upstairs and threw on his equipment and grabbed a Daedric claymore. Before going downstairs he undid the chains on Aoku, she took a swing at him but he was able to catch her claw and whisper in her ear.

"I am not your enemy, I am your friend." He said this and let go. And like a civilised person the werewolf responded with a slight nod. Ryan ran downstairs and looked to Sparhawk.

"You want to prove yourself?" said Ryan.

"Yes." Replied Sparhawk.

"Then get ready to fight!" said Ryan before running outside. Vvardenfell wasn't far behind him, she wasn't going to let Ryan die in a fight, she was getting to really like him. Ryan ran to the city gates and spotted Priests, Ordinators and Buoyant Armigers coming at the city. Ryan kept low while running to avoid arrows coming in his direction, his men did the same. As Ryan got close he jumped up and swung the sword killing a Buoyant Armiger. The two sides crashed like waves and soldiers fell like pebbles being swept away by a current.

Vvardenfell snuck up from the side quietly watching for a soldier who would wander away when his nerves failed at the last second. But she felt a hand rest on her shoulder instead.

"Which side will you help then?" asked the voice, it was Shardae.

"You led them here didn't you?" Asked Vvardenfell.

"You shouldn't answer a question with a question, its not a good sign." Replied Shardae.

"Answer me!" demanded Vvardenfell.

"This is a rescue mission, we came for you." She responded.

"Then maybe I will leave!" said Vvardenfell, considering the opportunity.

A Priest was casting powerful spells that were devastating Imperial troops, then she noticed a High Ordinator fighting the wrong side, but then she remembered what she was told, she knew it was Ryan. She watched as the warrior swung the Daedric Claymore and sliced down an Ordinator, then some Buoyant Armigers. The priest charged up a spell and blasted it at Ryan.

Ryan struck down a soldier and then felt a icy blast strike his back, it was a strong one, he fell for a second but then turned around to spot the priest that had shot it at him. Ryan knew this sort of priest; this woman thought that her spells were a gift from Vivec or Almalexia. Ryan had some powerful spells himself, and now he would show one off. He felt lighting charge between his hands; she felt more ice charge between her hands. The two blasted at each other and they exploded in the centre knocking soldiers aside.

Ryan Shot another blast of lightning again but this time the priest had no time to react and she was zapped. Another dead face to haunt Ryan's eternal nightmares.

Vvardenfell watched the action and found it to be quite the spectacle.

"Did Turv survive?" asked Vvardenfell.

"Why do you care? You left him for dead!" Responded Shardae.

"I had to leave! It gives me a chance to scope the competition and learn valuable information. Tell me now, did he survive?"

"Yes, he's okay, he's spending his time practicing and training. He plans to fight Ryan again."

"Do you think he might be able to win?" asked Vvardenfell, wondering whom she wants to win and feeling guilty about it.

"He's much better, he's the perfect example of what won't kill you will make you stronger. But Ryan is still on a different league, but give him time and it could be either mans fight." Said Shardae, thinking if all this information might able to bring Vvardenfell back home.

Sparhawk spun his two broadswords around and sliced down Priests. But as he spun them a boot came from an enemy general and knocked him back, slightly losing balance. He knew his attacker it was Kedar Emris. He was the reason Sparhawk became a soldier, this man had killed Sparhawk's father in a battle.

"Come boy, has your fathers blood been spoiled?" said Emris. Sparhawk didn't respond, he just thrust his swords forward aiming for Emris who gave a swipe and knocked Sparhawk off balance.

"The problem is boy I have spent years practicing this rather unorthodox form combat and perfected skills you haven't heard of." Said Emris with a sneer.

"I'll kill you yet!" Said Sparhawk thundering down blows with his swords.

"Not today." Said Emris as he knocked Sparhawk off his feet and disappeared into the crowds.

&&&&&&

Imperial soldiers stood in a line at the gates of Ebonheart. One of Her Hands had been transported into the city and was trying to leave, they could not let that happen. But they didn't meet a Hand, a werewolf jumped them and tore them to bits before bounding down the path.

&&&&&&

Zebeyna had her amulet around her neck and walked through the empty plains. She started to run and felt alive with the cold night air blowing in her hair. She ran as fast as she could for a while then jumped down a slope started running again when she touched the floor.

"Not long to go! Then I can mess this place up!" she said to herself during a small pause while she gathered her breath.

&&&&&&

Vjad sat in a chair, tied to position. Sabre and Ershedro were in rooms along the corridor. Vjad knew what to expect, someone would come in to interrogate him but any information he gave out would be pointless as by now he should have sent a letter to Caldera, the troops he left back there will notify Ryan and Ryan will come to take the fight right onto Vivec's doorstep. Also they would change any plans that Vjad had told them as he could tell the Ordinators and spoil it.

Someone came in, an Imperial in custom made armour, it looked like bronze and it shaped to make him look like a Demi-god, the helmet was like an Ordinators except it only protected the bridge of his nose, the rest of his face could be seen. He had a kind face, with a small bit of black hair carefully cut so it was able to grow nice and well but not very long.

"Do you know who I am?" asked the man in bronze.

"No I don't, should I?" asked Vjad.

"I am an honourable man and a respected general. I don't want to attack you to get information, please just tell me what you know!" he said, Vjad would recognise a lie, this guy wasn't lying.

"I'm not telling you anything." Said Vjad.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Said the bronze figure who then knocked at the door he came in, three Ordinators walked in and picked up the chair Vjad was sitting in. They carried it to the Arena. There they took of the chains and let Vjad loose in the arena. Vjad spotted his equipment waiting for him.

"What's the meaning of this?" asked Vjad.

"You'll see N'wah!" laughed an Ordinator. Soon enough Ershedro and Sabre were sent in as well. The three stood in the arena and spoke for a while. Suddenly people started coming in and sitting in the spectator area. Someone at a throne stood up and started speaking when everyone had settled down. The man at the Throne had skin that changed colour from one side to another.

"People, I your Holy One, Disciple Of Vivec have for you today three assassins who made an attempt on Saryoni. They shall fight until they tell us there plans or they die." Said the regal figure with the multi coloured skin. The crowd began to roar with approval.

"We have to kill him!" whispered Sabre to the others.

"Who is it?" asked Ershedro.

"He's a Prophet, he's as old as Vivec but not as powerful. Very important." He said before being interrupted by the Nix hounds that were rushing the Arena. The group killed them off quickly, the crowd booed. Then came some thugs and thieves who also died quickly. Waves of increasingly difficult opponents came in but the three were able to defeat them all. After about ten rounds they were tired and a little wounded. Then the bronze figure entered the Arena. The crowd was ecstatic.

"I give you your champion, a man with more honour then the Nerevarine and more patriotism then his father, I give you…. Selione!" shouted a man standing next to the Holy One; the crowd chanted the name over and over again.

Selione held a sword and shield that matched the design of his armour.

"Why can you not give in? Have you not proved your worth?" asked Selione.

"Don't taunt us with your fake sympathy!" shouted Ershedro. The three rushed Selione and tried to take him down quickly but he made an impressive duck roll swipe move that knocked down Ershedro but didn't injure him. Sabre took a swipe at him with his Axe but Selione blocked it and flicked into the air and gave a quick kick at Sabre, Sabre fell backwards but quickly jumped up.

Vjad thrusted his Ebony Broadsword forward hoping to get Selione in the back but the warrior seemed to expect it and he flicked around and defended. Ershedro came at his opponent with the dual longs and started swiping high and low but each attack was in vain as Selione jumped and ducked to avoid the shots. Selione threw his shield like a Frisbee and it connected with the chest of Ershedro who fell back, winded slightly. Selione took the chance to shoot a drain health at Ershedro, it was a powerful spell and it sucked the health out of Ershedro. He was helpless, the others watched as their partner went down unconscious.

Selione stuck his sword into the floor and took out a bronze quarterstaff. Sabre jumped at him and started thundering down blows with his sword. Once Selione had the chance he moved onto the offensive and jabbed Sabre into the stomach forcing him backwards, then Selione flicked his quarterstaff around his waist and it connected with the waist of Sabre who fell to the floor. Selione jabbed the quarterstaff into the floor and used it to propel himself off the ground, he spun horizontally and let an ankle crash onto Sabre's chest. Sabre who was now winded knew what to expect, the same method was being used but with a different weapon.

Vjad tried to drop his the Axe down on Selione but Selione rolled out of the way and cracked the quarterstaff against Vjad's head, it connected and the helmet was dented. Vjad was forced to take the helmet off as it was poking into his skull dangerously.

Sabre jumped at Selione but he was struck down with a ferocious swipe of the quarterstaff that lashed down his spine.

Selione cast a spell of absorb fatigue this time, it got Sabre. Sabre felt the energy leave him. Selione just gave the tired opponent one last strike in the face with the Quarterstaff. Sabre knocked against the floor hard.

"Then there was one." Said Vjad to Selione, with no intention of joining his friends on the floor.

"Just give up." Said Selione. Vjad just shook his head.

"Loyalty stops me." Said Vjad before running at Selione with his Axe held high and proud. Selione threw the quarterstaff aside and pulled out two small axes of bronze.

Vjad struck at Selione but once again Selione was able to avoid injury. Selione then span around Vjad and sliced at his sides, cutting him just enough for injury but no real risk of death. Vjad fell onto his knees, trying to get up again but he couldn't, the cuts were to deep to let him. He expected a killing blow but none came. Selione started to walk out of the arena when the Holy One stood up.

"Child, strike down the enemy now!" he ordered.

"I fight for my people, not for my peoples entertainment." Said Selione as he walked out.

But then Vjad got up, with his axe held proudly. Selione turned to face him.

"Bastard, why can't you stay down?" asked Selione.

"You fight for your people, so do I." Said Vjad. Vjad walked forward and started swiping at Selione, but with the injuries to his sides he couldn't hope to win, Selione took out a hammer and knocked him down again and again until he stayed down. And by then he had a broken nose, a broken rib, bashed up fingers and countless other injuries.

"Do me a favour Holy One." Shouted Selione to the prophet.

"What do you ask prince of Vivec?" he replied.

"Send this one home!" said Selione.

"It shall be done." Said The Holy One, despite the booing from the crowds.

&&&&&&

Ryan led his men to chase the last of the Ordinators, an Ordinator made his presence aware. His armour was different, the shoulder pieces were large and shaped like a bird resting on each shoulder and his armour had a beautiful golden glow. He said nothing but he blasted a spell at Ryan, it hit Ryan, he fell back and was knocked to the floor. His armour was suddenly very hot in parts, Ryan ripped off his helmet, chest piece and his left shoulder piece and glove. Ryan jumped up and his golden straw like hair fell hung down behind him as he rushed the Ordinator who drew a special looking sword, it had a similar golden glow to the rest of his armour, but this was enchanted. The Ordinator tried to cut down Ryan as he ran at him but failed as Ryan simply blocked and cut down the warrior.

The last of the Tribunal troops scattered and fled. Ryan picked up the special Ordinators unique gear and carried it back to his house in Caldera.

&&&&&&

Shardae saw the Ordinators fall and decided to run; as if Vvardenfell did decide to officially join Ryan then Shardae was hopelessly outnumbered. She ran after some others, when Vvardenfell turned to say something Shardae she found no trace of the friend.

Vvardenfell walked back to the house and joined the others.

&&&&&&

Vivec spoke with The Holy One in his private sanctum.

"Are you positive of this?" Asked Vivec.

"Yes, the ashlanders now leave their camps coming to the safety of the cantons here in Vivec. The Nerevarine suggests that we empty some cities to build up the defences in others, I agree with him. " Replied The Holy One.

"Indeed, we shall vacate Sardith Mora and bring them all here. Can we fit the increased population?" asked Vivec.

"Of course my lord." Replied The Holy One.

"Have the great houses taken sides officially?" asked Vivec.

"Yes sir, Hlaalu and Redoran have side against us but Telvanni is with us as you expected. The Guilds are staying completely neutral and working as normal, they shall continue to work on contract. I suggest we hire out the use of the fighters guild to stack up on expendable troops." Said The Holy One.

"Maybe, has the Nerevarine sent his report?" asked Vivec.

"Absolutely, a strike on Caldera failed last night, the city was heavily defended but another strike headed by Selione might be successful. Ebonheart is still well defended but it is possible to strike from above if we are careful. The Hlaalu and Redoran cantons here in Vivec have been sealed off and we cannot get in. That's all he said basically, although he does ask for additional troops as he thinks he could take Balmora with the aid of further Buoyant Armigers."

"I see, can we risk sending them?" asked Vivec.

"I believe we can, if we take Balmora then we have a clear strike at Caldera, if it is taken then the Empire will fall."

"That shall not happen, a fight will come here to Vivec, I have foreseen it." Said Vivec.

"I foresaw no such thing, I foresaw a burning temple, and it looked like the temple in Mournhold."

"Indeed, I don't think the Lady Almalexia will survive this war, the Royal guard pushing back the High Ordinators further everyday."

"What of her hands?"

"Will significant in power, they would fail against the might of the Empire dominance in the city."

&&&&&&

Jaros looked to the ocean, he wanted to go to the mainland and fight for his people's safety. The now leading soldier in the fort walked up behind him.

"Are you thinking about something?" asked the new head, a short woman with a long blade.

"Yes, I want to fight the Tribunal but my people on their own in the mainland would fall for they no not the terrain or cities. Whom would you suggest I find to aid me?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I suppose Varro in the Balmora fort or Ryan, he's always at the front of the big scraps." She said.

"My dear, don't call them scraps it's a horrible thing to call a battle, it makes them out to be a punch out between two kids. But this Ryan character, where can I find him?" he replied.

"I don't know but if you go to Caldera you'll find him or his wife and she'll know where he is." She replied.

"Thank you." He said before rounding up the troops and leaving for the mainland.

&&&&&&

Ryan had gone to his wife and told her to leave and head to Raven Rock, as things should be safer there. When he arrived home Vvardenfell asked about his wife.

"She seems nice, is she your wife?" asked Vvardenfell.

"To be honest she's not, and the child is not mine either. She is my cousin and her child, my nephew. I just spread the rumour that she was my wife to stop people from pestering me to marry there daughters." He said with a little smile.

"Stop pestering you? You make it sound so horrible." She replied.

"It is, I had a dozen men come to me one week asking me to marry his daughter, it got very annoying after awhile as you can imagine." He said.

"Yeah I suppose." She said, not completely believing her own statement.

&&&&&&

A knight arrived at the door to visit Ryan, Aoku, Vvardenfell and Ryan's newest associate Sparhawk.

"Ryan we have a problem." Said the knight.

"What is it?" asked Ryan calmly.

"Ashlanders and fishermen from the north are migrating to Vivec in hundreds." He said.

"I see, you worry for the numbers it shall bolster to Vivec's armies aren't you."

"Well yes m'lord. Varro has requested you join him in an attempt to stop them." Said the knight. But as Ryan considered it someone else arrived in Caldera, it was the shattered shell that was Vjad, brought to town by the fighter's guild. It was instantly brought to Ryan's attention, as it was well known in the land that Vjad was Ryan's leading officer. Ryan ran to his side and looked at his injuries.

"Who did this to you?" asked Ryan leaning close to hear his friend.

"Selione." He choked after several attempts.

Ryan was infuriated as you can imagine. Ryan ran into the house to get some equipment. Aoku asked him what was wrong.

"The so called prince of Vivec Selione, has desecrated Vjad my head officer and a personal friend of mine who I hold very dear to my heart. I'm going to kill him." said Ryan putting on some enchanted Daedric armour, he was only wearing a right gauntlet, right shoulder pad, and the greaves. He was also wearing his boots of blinding speed, he was wearing his armour like this because after last nights battle he found it actually very easy to fight like this he had a lot of protection and flexibility. He got something he had vowed to never use again, a sword he kept hidden under the floor boards, a sword that would make Vivec himself tremble in fear. It was an ancient blade constructed by some fouls monster of a dead civilization. The weapon itself was large and thick; it looked like a living sword, a horrible combination of red flesh and black metal.

Vvardenfell ran to Ryan.

"Ryan I'm begging you don't fight him, I know him he is a good man and someone I am proud to call a friend! I'm begging you, do this as a favour and I shall stay at your side." She pleaded with him but it was completely in vain, he didn't even listen. Ryan ran out of the city.

&&&&&&

A dark brotherhood agent looked through the window, he was to assassinate an important Tribunal diplomat. Suddenly he was tapped on the shoulder, he turned around to see a fellow dark brotherhood member but he wasn't wearing the helmet and he had a cloak, it was a wood elf.

"Why are you not wearing the full gear brother?" asked the agent. Suddenly the wood elf stabbed the Dark Brotherhood agent in the stomach, the agent could feel poison poor into his body. The dagger was Daedric, and when the wood elf pulled it out the edges of the blade it tore at his flesh. The agent fell to the floor stone dead.

"Why would you think I'm your brother?" he said before wiping the blade against the agent, then putting the cloak over himself and disappearing into the shadows.

&&&&&&

Back in Solstheim a man watched as the final boats went out to the mainland, he was an old man. And a tear fell from his eye as the boat left. A redguard nearby saw the man and asked him.

"Hey friend, are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes yes, but my son was on that boat to go fight and he's all I have left." Said the man.

"I'm an assassin myself, it's a dangerous world over there." He said.

"An assassin you say?" asked the old man, his eyes drying up.

"Yeah why, need someone knocked out."

"No but, I presume you would have a lot of experience in the old bit of battling?" he said.

"Well I prefer to strike from a distance and hide in the shadows but yeah why?"

"If I were to pay you to protect my son, could you do it?" he asked.

"Well yeah I suppose, it's the opposite of what I do usually but I could do it." Said the Redguard.

"Thank you, I don't have much but I can pay you." Said the old man.

"Look you can pay me when I get back, which one is your son?" asked the Redguard.

"His name is Lucas. He has long red hair, he's a bit young, about six and a half feet tall, not very heavy. Did you see him leaving? He was on the last boat." Said the man.

"I was watching, I think I saw him alright. I'll see you when the war is over or when I've failed." He said before leaving for the job.

&&&&&&

Selione and Saryoni stood in front of Vivec and The Holy One.

"Do you know what is happening?" asked The Holy One.

"I do not, put fear is in my heart." Said Saryoni.

"The Breton is coming for you Selione, he shall not just kill you either…he shall steal your soul." Said Vivec.

"He can't, you cannot trap the soul of a man. I know you can't!" said Selione.

"There are something's powerful enough to give the wielder the power to capture even my soul. And he has one of them, a sword of horrible power, should the Tribunal ever get it we would cast in into Red Mountain if it still stood." Said The Holy One.

"But we are prepared, take this." Said Vivec handing him the Helm Of Ignatius.

"Thank you, but what is this?" asked Selione.

"That Helm shall combine your skills with that of everyone who has worn it before you, and that's some very legendary warriors indeed, it almost guarantees victory." Said The Holy One.

"What do you mean by almost?" asked Saryoni. Fearing for his son.

"Nothing is guaranteed anymore." Said Vivec.

**Gevaden: that's chapter 4! I hope you enjoyed it, there is a lot to come, **


	5. Chapter 5

Gevaden: I'm back after being banned temporarily for having this fic being interactive, please remember it is no longer interactive but I will continue to use the characters that were submitted prior to the banning.

Aoku looked at Vjad the next morning, lots of broken bones and two severe cuts to the sides, nothing she couldn't fix with time. She began the process of healing him and the little wounds went away, but it would take a lot longer to fix the bones.

Vvardenfell watched as Aoku was healing Vjad.

"You shouldn't let people mistreat you for being a werewolf." Said Vvardenfell.

"I know, but I'd prefer them be angry at me then someone else. People today have to hate something; if they don't then they focus on other things and they'll always pick on something. I'd rather pick on me then pick on… lets say a homeless person or someone who can't defend themselves." She replied.

"That's a really nice way to look on life." Said Vvardenfell, while walking up and down the room rubbing her hands together.

"What's wrong?" asked Aoku, as it was painfully obvious that something was bothering Vvardenfell.

"Its just that I know both Ryan and Selione, and one of them will be dead by this time tomorrow. I don't want either of them to die. Selione is honourable, pleasant, considerate and generous. While Ryan, I don't really know." She said.

"Yeah, I haven't spent much time with him but he's not exactly an open book." Replied Aoku.

"Well I know that he's a good leader, a reluctant hero, a natural bodyguard, helpful and friendly in his own way…and he's kinda cute, although his face is so blank of emotion." Said Vvardenfell like a like a little schoolgirl.

"That's very true but there is so much life in his eyes." Replied Aoku.

"Yeah." Said the two girls in unison before laughing a little.

"Please kill me." coughed Vjad.

"You're not that injured." Protested Aoku.

"No, I just can't take this silly girly conversation." He said with a little laugh.

"Oh a funny man are you?" Said Aoku jokingly before giving him a prod in an injured rib.

&&&&&&

Zebeyna looked at the bridge to Ebonheart, the guards she saw would check her for weapons and confiscate them in this time of war, so that way was out of the question.

She remembered her amulet, she thought of giving it a try. She murmured a password to activate its magicka and then her image disappeared, she walked right past the guards and gave one of them a kick in the arse. The guard covered his ass after the kick.

"What's wrong Lloyd? Is that curse taking effect again?" asked a rather dopey looking guard.

"Yeah, damn that witch, I thought she was supposed to remove it, its worse now." Replied the guard that had been kicked.

Zebeyna was able stroll right into the East Empire Company and look around for the rich top cats that she wanted to assassinate. She opened a door that she guessed led to an office, but when she opened the door she could hardly see inside, as it was so dark. She stepped inside and felt a cold chill wash over her body, suddenly the room was very bright and see saw a man in long robes. As she stepped in the door swung closed.

"Ahh Zebeyna, you took your time." Said the character.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Who am I, I haven't been asked that in a very long time…I am the Puppet Master." He said as he held up a puppet that bore an unmistakeable resemblance to Zebeyna.

&&&&&&

The Holy One and Vivec spoke in the privacy of Vivec's palace.

"The assault an Caldera was a success on the second level." Said The Holy One.

"Indeed." Said Vivec, contemplating something.

"As we expected it has a huge defence, they have far too many troops defending it, and now even more troops are leaving Balmora to attack the Dunmer that are travelling down here from the north." Continued The Holy One.

"Then we shall send the Buoyant Armigers to defend the Dunmer, while the Ordinators shall take Balmora. Prophecy is going as it should." Said Vivec with a sigh.

"Why are you sad my lord?" asked The Holy One.

"Because the Prophecy tells of a great loss to our people." Said Vivec.

"It is a worthy loss." Said The Holy One reassuringly. Just then the doors to the palace opened. A character in Daedric armour all over bar a royal guard helmet walked in.

"You summoned me?" asked the character.

"Gratis Clout yes, I want you to watch the incoming battle between Selione and Ryan, if Selione dies and Ryan moves towards the city you are to strike him down." Said Vivec to Gratis Clout, the Nerevarine.

"I shall. The Breton shall fall to my blade sooner or later." Said Gratis.

"You shall have several encounters with him on the battlefield, remember your honour." Said Vivec.

"I always do." Replied Gratis before giving a quick bow and leaving.

"Do you think the Breton has the skill to defeat our champion?" asked The Holy One.

"There is controversy over who should claim to have defeated Doguth Ur. Both battled him, but from what has reached my ears concerning the fight itself it would seem that the Breton defeated Doguth Ur and Gratis gave the killing blow. Then the two left the mountain and it collapsed." Said Vivec.

"You did not answer my question, do you think Gratis will defeat Ryan if Selione does not." Asked The Holy One again.

"Asking me that is like asking me to choose between my two sons of equal skill. It is impossible to tell." Replied Vivec.

&&&&&&

Ryan arrived at the bridge that would lead him to the city of Vivec. He looked at the bridge, he knew better then to cross.

"SELIONE!" he shouted. After a few moments he shouted again, then again and again and again.

Selione could hear the shouts of Ryan, he walked along the Redoran canton with Saryoni and Gratis following behind. He heard Ryan shout again.

"My son." Said Saryoni, with a tear in his eye.

"Yes father?" asked Selione.

"Do you know why we will win this war?" asked Saryoni.

"No tell me?" replied Selione.

"I'll tell you when you get back." He said as he handed Selione his sword. Selione took his bronze sword from his father. Then turned to Gratis, he looked at the dark armour, the darkness that could be seen in the visor. How ironic that the shining light that was the Nerevarine wore black gothic armour.

"Return from this fight prince of Vivec." Said Gratis.

"I shall." Replied Selione, the two shook hands and Selione went to fight a fight like no other, a fight that could turn the tides of war and shatter the morale of the losing side.

"SELIONE!" shouted Ryan again.

The prince walked out to meet Ryan, his father, Gratis and several Ordinators were all in view.

"Ryan, let us make a pact to the gods, the winner shall allow the loser to be buried in his home ground." Said Selione, keeping his honour in mind. Then he spotted the sword in Ryan's hand, it was a very odd weapon indeed. It looked like a living creature and a sword fused together, it even had an eye that followed Selione around, anyone that carried this sword couldn't care about honour. The sword was literally growing over Ryan's right hand, almost fusing with Ryan.

"Your pact means nothing anymore." Said Ryan, hearing a voice in his head that was begging to taste the blood of Selione, it was the swords voice, it was one of the reasons Ryan didn't want to use this sword, it was dangerous to the user as well as the opponent.

"Then we shall fight." Replied Selione, sword and shield in hand. Selione was a tougher opponent then when he had fought in the Arena, his helmet was enchanted to increase his long blade skill, his destruction magicka and his total Magicka. But he had no idea of the power of Ryan's demon blade of arcane origins.

Ryan used to hands to wield the giant blade and swung it at Selione who jumped back a bit to avoid the swing. Selione would have to play a defensive role for now if he wanted to win. Ryan swung the sword left and right but Selione jumped or ducked to avoid, then Ryan was able to get in with a swipe but Selione raised his shield to defend himself. Even though he was able to defend himself the power behind this arcane blade was enough to knock back still.

Selione knew that his sword wasn't long enough to get in at Ryan so he threw down his sword and swung his shield at Ryan who knocked it down with his sword. Selione took out his spear, and started thrusting and spinning. Ryan was able to crudely defend himself, not yet used to the weight of his sword.

&&&&&&

Moonstar arrived in Caldera, he had made it past the guards easy enough with his alibi that he was defecting. He inquired around and to his dismay found out that Ryan had left the town an hour ago, headed to Vivec by the sounds of it.

He didn't bother stay, he left straight away for Vivec.

"I'll take your throat to your Breton, until your eyes roll back, your blood will rush through my veins, your heart will stop beating!" he said to himself, his werewolf state of mind was kicking in which was odd as it was the morning, it must be the pendant effecting him.

&&&&&&

Vjad stood up, his body just about healed; time would heal his wounds from now. He walked up to Ryan's display of armour, sadly his imperial armour wasn't enough anymore, and he needed something tougher, something with the X-factor. He took a glass cuirass and glass Pauldrons then Orcish greaves and braces. This armour was good, but not good enough, he walked to the shelf facing the door, where Ryan kept his rarer gear. Vjad put grabbed a pair of Daedric boots, a Daedric war axe and to top it all off, the Daedric face of Inspiration. He put the gear on and found it better instantly, he felt stronger, more ready.

"I'm not sure if Ryan would like you going at those?" said Vvardenfell.

"Don't worry, Ryan will not care the slightest if I take these…" He said as he walked out the door. "…I'll be back later." He said as he closed the door.

"Why is everyone leaving?" asked Aoku.

"I guess the men all think they need to prove themselves in combat." Said Vvardenfell.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Is it just me or can anyone find this place?" asked Vvardenfell as she approached the door. She opened the door and found Shardae at the entrance.

"Shardae." She said blandly.

"I've defected. The temple is chasing me." Said Shardae. Vvardenfell stood aside and ushered her in.

"Did they see you come hear? Why are they after you?" asked Aoku.

"Because of this." Said Shardae producing a map. She opened it on a nearby table.

"What is it?" asked Vvardenfell.

"This is a map of the layout of Vivec, the whole city, every canton. It even shows a secret escape route under Vivec's palace and the High Fane, it leads a few miles north east." She said with a proud smile on her face. Vvardenfell and Aoku exchanged glances.

&&&&&&

Jaros and his troops entered Khuul. It was empty, everything and everyone was gone, only the dock and a few houses stood standing.

"It would seem that the place has been evacuated." Said a Nord of stout build to Jaros.

"Yes, everyone must have been moved to another city, a safer one. This is an uncommon strategy, whoever is attempting this is taking a risk." Said Jaros.

"How so?" asked a soldier.

"Because if the inhabitants of this town are caught before they reach there destination they'll slaughtered, and I know this town was a Tribunal controlled city, so lets chase em' down." Said Jaros beginning a run, his troops chasing after him.

&&&&&&

Astelan was called from his usually job, his usual job was hunting down assassins or hit men in the city of Vivec, he was good at it. But now he was called to speak with a priest.

"You summoned me my lord?" asked Astelan speaking to a Dunmer with short black hair.

"Yes, do you know what's going on outside of Vivec right now?" said the priest.

"No sir, tell me." He replied.

"Selione is fighting for his life!" said the priest, slamming a fist against the table he was sitting at.

"Would you have me aid him?" asked Astelan.

"No, just watch the fight, learn his opponents moves, be my eyes and ears." Said the priest before ushering Astelan out of the room.

Astelan started to run, no one in the land could go toe to toe with Selione for long, except Gratis but those two got on very well. Astelan made it to the front bridge and saw the fight, then understood the importance as it was that famous Breton Selione was fighting.

&&&&&&

Selione flicked the spear up and the bottom cracked against Ryan's chin, Ryan rushed forward and started swiping, Selione tried to jump back but he didn't far enough and a blow hit him and sent him crashing across the floor.

Selione dug the spear into the ground to propel himself up, he dropped down with a spinning kick that got Ryan on the head, then he span forward with several kicks that got Ryan in the chest. Ryan stumbled back but then caught Selione by the shoulder, he smashed the hilt of his sword down on Selione, hitting him in the face and shoulder several times each, when he was finished with the bashing he threw Selione aside.

Selione span around on the floor and lashed out with his legs, he didn't need to kick Ryan but from this position he could quickly and safely jump up to safety.

Selione pulled out some throwing knives; he started throwing them at Ryan. Ryan wasn't able to defend against them all with his large sword and one got him in the shoulder. Ryan dug his sword into the floor; he could hear it scream with rage in his head as he put it down.

The two began a flurry of close combat moves, Ryan chopped a hand down at Selione but Selione blocked easily and punched at Ryan's not very well defended chest, Ryan was able to protect his chest with a quick spin and shoulder thrust. The two exchanged blows and throws but neither was getting very far quickly.

Selione made a burst for his sword; he made a dive, grabbed it during his dive and rolled to safety. Ryan picked up the spear that Selione had dropped earlier, and then picked up his shield.

Selione swung sword with grace and skill, he managed to give Ryan a cut under the eye.

Ryan threw the spear at Selione, but Selione was able to jump aside and evade it, then Ryan swung the shield like a mace and was able to blow Selione's sword out of a defensive place and then he hammered Selione in the face. Selione didn't stay down for long, he jumped up and swung the sword low, going for Ryan's ankles but Ryan jumped to avoid. Ryan tried to get Selione right on the top of his head but Selione raised his sword and defended, then he smashed Ryan in the face with the hilt of his sword

Ryan summoned a Dremora to aid him put with one well-aimed swipe of his sword Selione felled the beast. Ryan then cast a very destructive thunder spell, but Ryan had miscalculated Selione's distance, the spell lashed out and struck down the two. Both warriors spiralled to the floor.

"What do you think, could you take him?" asked Astelan to Gratis.

"Yes, he is clumsy with his magicka clearly and his skill with his sword is inferior to mine." Said Gratis confidently.

"Do you think my son can win?" asked Saryoni.

"That is a much harder question, with the aid of that helm it is close, very close. That sword on the other hand, that abomination the Breton brought with him, is dangerous. He could kill a man with it."

The two men slowly pulled themselves up. Selione was up first, even though he was hit by the brunt of the spell. His weapons had been blown from him so he just ran at Ryan and grabbed him around the throat from behind. Ryan easily flicked him over his shoulder and drove his knee onto the chest of Selione.

Ryan got up and lumbered over to his sword. He took a potion to heal himself up first and then drew his sword from the ground.

Selione dashed at his sword and then to his shield. He knew better then to run at Ryan when he had that sword, he'd wait for Ryan to make the first attack and then quickly strike.

Ryan didn't make the first attack though, he cast a spell at Selione, this time it hit him but didn't have any effect. In fact Selione was able to take the chance to run at Ryan and drove his sword through Ryan's waist, Ryan fell to one knee, then looked up to meet the gaze of Selione.

"You have failed Ryan, walk away now." Said Selione.

"Never!" said Ryan as he quickly picked up his sword and drove it up through Selione's stomach and it emerged from his back. Selione let out a gasp as the sword tore through his body, ending his life.

"My son." Said Saryoni as he collapsed to his knees, covering his eyes with his hands as he began to cry. Gratis put a hand to Saryoni's shoulder and helped him up, Saryoni was forced to watch his sons feet tied up with a rope that Ryan had around his waist, Ryan was going to bring this body back to Caldera and dump it somewhere, his son would never get a proper burial.

Saryoni turned and began to stumble back to the high fane.

Astelan got Gratis's attention for a moment.

"That blue cloud that Ryan shot at Selione after the two got up. Does this mean what I think it does?" He muttered.

"Yes Astelan, Ryan captured Selione's soul. Do not say it to Saryoni; it would destroy the old man. I shall deal with that monster in time. The Empire shall pay for this one." Said Gratis, walking to Vivec with his head held low.

Ryan held in his hand the star of Azura, a soul gem given to him by the goddess, a soul gem that now held the soul of Selione, the prince of Vivec. Ryan drank hearth a potion to heal up his wound, his wound started to heal but there was still a painful scar left, it would be okay for now. Ryan took the end of the rope and started pulling Selione to Caldera.

&&&&&&

**Gevaden: That's that chapter dealt with, I hope everyone hears that its back up and get reading again.**


	6. Chapter 6

Gevaden: Well here is chapter six, I hope you enjoy it as much as you enjoyed the rest.

Zebeyna's body was thrown into the poses that the puppet master made with the doll of her.

"Now child, you will do as I command or else…" he held a knife up to the dolls stomach and Zebeyna could feel it against her stomach.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"That is an excellent question, what do I want. What I want you can give me, but you will do something that would make my quest easier." He said.

"And that is?" she asked.

"Slaughter the Mage's Guild, then House Telvanni." He said with a wicked grin.

"I can't, house Telvanni is The Tribunals Ally." She pleaded.

"Wrong answer. I care about becoming the most powerful mage in existence, and that's all." He said as he threw the doll across the room. Zebeyna flew across and smashed into the stonewall.

"Now what do you say child?" he asked.

"I shall destroy the Mage's Guild." She said.

"And?" he questioned.

"And I shall…I shall…I shall shove a knife through your throat." She said jumping at him with a knife in hand.

"Don't be so insolent child!" he said as he waved his hand. Waving his hand was his way of casting a spell; Zebeyna was pushed against the wall again.

"I shall never do your dirty work." She said, spitting at him.

"We shall see." He said as lightning shot from his fingers zapping Zebeyna.

&&&&&&

Isude, the Redguard hired to protect a Nord soldier followed the soldiers from the shadows, taking the route that was hard to see.

He spotted the kid he was to protect and kept running. It was hard to keep up with the Nord troops, they ran as if Doguth Ur was behind them and they had the stamina of horses.

But he would fulfil his promise. He spotted a Cliff Racer flying at the troops. Isude threw a shuriken and quickly killed it.

"I need something a little tougher to really test me." He said, considering that he hadn't really had a decent job in a while.

&&&&&&

Vvardenfell, Shardae and Sparhawk sat around a table chatting and joking (Aoku was a werewolf at this time) when the door opened. Everyone span to see who was coming in…or breaking in. But no one was breaking in, it was Ryan returning, pulling the corpse behind him.

Vvardenfell left out a shriek, she had known Selione, he was a good, honourable man. Ryan just walked out back and started to wrap up Selione in cloth. Vvardenfell watched from a window as Ryan wrapped up the body.

But when Ryan came to the face of Selione he himself began to cry. Vvardenfell watched from a distance, Vjad who had returned earlier but had been sleeping until now walked up behind her.

"Why is he crying?" she asked, desperately looking for an answer, everyone crowded around.

"He cries when Angels deserve to die." Said Vjad.

"What Angel?" asked Aoku.

"He's the angel, a priest in Vivec once blessed Ryan for his duty and said that 'you shall always be a angel in the eyes of those that know you' and since then people have seen Ryan in a new light. But he has been tormented night after night." Said Vjad.

"Tormented, how so?" asked Shardae.

"He is tormented by nightmares. Whenever there is a war he is tormented when he sleeps, tormented by nightmares of people he has killed."

"He cries because of there is one more face in his nightmares?" asked Shardae.

"No, because he killed Selione in a rage, he forgot his honour, he forgot himself. He killed Selione before it was his time, Selione did not deserve death. Ryan cries for the good deeds that Selione will never do, he cries for his own lost soul."

"Lost soul?" asked Vvardenfell.

"He shall not ascend to the place where the kings ascend to, when he dies he shall go somewhere dark as he is a fallen angel in a world of devils and demons." Said Vjad.

"So what happens now?" asked Vvardenfell, her eyes drying up.

"He shall spend a few days without speaking or eating, then he shall ask me to join him on a voyage of redemption as always, we shall go into the wilderness of Solstheim and spend a month or so there until he believes he is ready to return to civilisation. That's what always happens." Said Vjad.

"This has happened before?" asked Shardae.

"Oh yes, it has happened a dozen times, and I believe it shall happen a dozen times more. Now get away from the window, let him do what he has to do."

&&&&&&

Moonstar arrived at Vivec, as he was a werewolf he couldn't speak to anyone so he just bided his time, unaware that he had again missed his target again.

He spotted a gondolier and couldn't help himself; he jumped at the man and had a meal. A well deserved meal.

&&&&&&

The Dunmer of the north were walking over the land where Red Mountain used to be. They were unaware that Jaros chased them from behind and Imperial troops came at them from the front. Buoyant Armigers protected them, a lot of Buoyant Armigers.

Also Ordinators in large numbers leaded by several High Ordinators and important priests marched on an unprepared Balmora.

&&&&&&

Meanwhile Sabre and Ershedro were leading a hooded figure to Ryan's house. They knocked on the house and Vjad welcomed them with open arms. Then Vjad spotted the hooded figure.

"I am sorry for our loss. I expect you are hear to see Ryan." Said Vjad. The hooded figure nodded and stepped in as Vjad went to Ryan.

Vjad found Ryan sitting in a corner of the back garden he had added onto the house when he bought it some years ago.

"Ryan, there is someone hear to see you, I think you will want to speak with him." said Vjad with a genuine tone of pity.

"I shall see him." said Ryan looking up, his face covered in depression. Ryan slowly got up. Vjad went into the house and ushered everyone upstairs, these two would want to speak alone.

Ryan walked in but couldn't see the face of the visitor. The hooded figure walked over and got down on his knees before Ryan. He then got up and removed his hood, it was Saryoni.

"You are brave to come here, I could have you killed easily." Said Ryan.

"Kill me if you will, I have released two generals loyal to you, I come here for my sons body. I have bowed to you, I have bowed to the man that killed my only son, the man that killed the prince of Vivec. I ask, can I have his body? It you give it to me, I shall leave you as a satisfied man."

"It must be hard to feel satisfied at a time like this." Replied Ryan.

"I can feel the weight of a million tears on my shoulders. It is heavier then any water you shall find."

"I shall give you the body. Come, it is out back." The two went out back and Ryan helped lift the body onto a guar that Saryoni had brought.

"You might have ended the life of my son, but I still see you as the angel I blessed you as back in a simpler time." Said Saryoni. Ryan just bowed his head in shame.

"You are the finest priest I ever met, the empire has none that can challenge you." Said Ryan, being completely sincere.

Vvardenfell walked out to see Saryoni, she had heard the voice but was unsure if it was him.

"Vvardenfell, I thought you had been taken prisoner." He said hugging the girl.

Ryan looked to her.

"You may leave if you want, you are no prisoner." Said Ryan.

"I think I shall stay actually." She said with a confident smile.

"That is your wish child?" asked Saryoni.

"Yes, that is my wish, but perhaps someday when this is all over the empire will need a good priest, or the Tribunal will need a good general?" Said Vvardenfell. Saryoni gave a small nod and left.

&&&&&&

Meanwhile the Hlaalu guard in Balmora where being crushed. Gratis had turned up at the battle and it had sealed the victory. A dozen guards ran at him and with a single swipe of his mace he sent them all flying through the sky like small stones.

The soldiers lined up in front of him and like an envoy of the end he ended their lives. Balmora fell to the Tribunal that night, meanwhile imperial guards rushed the Dunmer over the ruins of Red Mountain but they were also beaten back and chased down like a pack of wounded Nix hounds. The Buoyant Armigers did not expect the Nords and that is whom they lost to. The Nords led by Jaros fought like wolves, it was a bloody battle and one the Armigers could not win.

**Gevaden: Very short I know, but this is just a taste of what I have to come. Consider it the appetiser in a very delicious meal. **


	7. Chapter 7

Gevaden: Sorry its taking time to get up chapters but my mother passed away and I'm not in the best of moods as you can guess. So if the chapters are a little lacking you know why.

Gratis Clout The Nerevarine, he once a member of the Blades but he had left them as soon as he could so he could enforce the will of Vivec, stood on the stairs that lead to the Stilt Strider and looked out at Balmora. A trusted officer stood next to him.

"It was you that took this city my lord." Said the Officer.

"We were destined to win this battle, Balmora was outnumbered and their troops not as well equipped." Replied Gratis.

"Then why did you come? You make it sound as if you were not required." Said The Officer.

"I came because I wanted my name to spread, I want to sow a seed of chaos and fear in the enemy ranks, this war is making Ryan famous again, he is a hero to the heretics. We need a hero too, Selione has passed away and many of the others we have that could be a hero remain in the shadows so that they do not become famous. I shall be the face of the tribunal." Replied Gratis.

"Why do the others refuse the fame?"

"Because a famous face is a well known face, a well known face in a war is a target."

"It seems so obvious when you put it like that." Replied the Officer.

&&&&&&

Vjad was right with what he said about Ryan. Vjad was able to pinpoint the exact day that Ryan would go into the wilderness. Everyone sat around having breakfast when Ryan came downstairs. Vjad gave a wink to the others as if to say "Here it comes."

"I have not been myself since I battled Selione as you might have noticed…" Said Ryan. "…But I usually after a period like this I would go to Solstheim but under the conditions with the enemy so close I shall stay on the Island but I will go out of contact for awhile." Continued Ryan.

"Shall someone come with you again?" asked Vjad, giving a wink to the others again.

"Yes, Vvardenfell will you come with me?" asked Ryan. Vjad's jaw dropped.

"Of course I will, the last few days have been hard for you." She said, when Ryan killed Selione it was as if someone had killed someone close to Ryan. He was depressed and everyone in the group was doing everything they could to help him.

"Thank you, we shall leave once you are ready." He said before going back upstairs.

"That is unexpected." Said Vjad, breaking an uncomfortable silence.

"Poor guy, it has been hard for him." said Aoku.

"Hold on, Ryan kills a man and then gets all sad? I fail to see the logic!" Said Ershedro.

"Its very complicated." Said Vjad.

"I'm rather puzzled myself." Said Sabre.

"Ignore it, he'll be the way you remember him in time." Said Vjad. Vvardenfell left to get ready.

&&&&&&

Meanwhile Jaros was preparing his soldiers to head for Caldera, they'd have to try to avoid Balmora and still wander through the barren lands that surrounded what was once Red Mountain.

The men marched at a quick pace, practically running the entire time, stopping every few hours for a quick bite to eat before pressing on.

As they ran Jaros stopped and ordered his men to stop.

"What's wrong chief?" asked a soldier.

"There's something out there, watching us." He said.

"What is it?" asked the soldier, holding up his axe.

"I'm not quite sure, have the rangers search the area for tracks." He said before slowly pressing on.

And there was something watching them, a security measure that Vivec had set in place. Ordinator death squads roomed the lands searching for anyone that might pose a problem…they had found a problem.

&&&&&&

Varro had of course survived the battle at Balmora and had fled to Caldera with a handful of people. Most of the people he had with him couldn't swing a sword but he had to get them to safety, and he did. He was now speaking with officials in Caldera trying to get some troops so that he could attempt an assault on Balmora and take it back.

"Let me tell you a story…" Varro said to the on looking officials. "…there was once a proud empire that was doing well. But then a nasty religious civilisation got a brave new warrior and used this new warrior to declare war on the proud empire. Now that brave new warrior took over a city, and a nice guard wants to take back that city for the proud empire but he can't do that without soldiers." Varro rambled for a little while before one of the officials said.

"Fine Varro, you can take any soldiers in the city that you can convince to go with you! No more no less." He said before ushering Varro away.

Varro left feeling slightly defeated. The first place he went was Ryan's house, he knew he'd need talented generals, also if he had that lot then soldiers wouldn't be so reluctant to follow him.

Varro knocked on the door to Ryan's house, dreading to see that over powered brat. But to Varro's surprise Ryan wasn't there.

"Where's he gone?" Asked Varro to Ershedro.

"Lets just say personal business." Replied Ershedro.

"Okay well basically there was once a proud empire that was doing well. But then a nasty religious civilisation got a brave new warrior and used this new warrior to declare war on the proud empire. Now that brave new warrior took over a city, and a nice guard wants to take back that city for the proud empire but he can't do that without soldiers. Will you and the others here help me lead the troops I gather to Balmora? It would mean a lot to the Empire." Varro proclaimed.

Ershedro brought Varro inside and then Varro proclaimed his case to the rest of the group, and to as a nice surprise they all agreed without much of a fight.

They all went around the city asking soldiers for there help and they got a very good result, many of the soldiers wanted to help.

&&&&&&

Gratis looked out at the road to Caldera, and spotted Varro and the soldiers as they approached. Gratis shouted to an officer.

"Get archers along the walls and axe men in at the walls. If the breach the walls then rush them with all close combat troops. Place remaining archers on the rooftops. Healers behind the troops."

"Yes sir." Replied the straight-backed officer. He gave the orders and troops quickly ran to there positions, all eager to impress the Nerevarine.

The archers prepared their bows, and waited for the enemy to get into view from around the hills. But to their surprise they were they were attacked from the sky, soldiers after drinking potions allowing them to levitate landed on the city walls and attacked the archers, once Varro heard the action on the walls he lead the men to the city. Anybody that had access to a high range destructive spell shot at the gates edges expecting that troops would be hiding behind the walls, which they were.

Once that was finished the troops ran at each other, everyone wanted to beat the first line of the enemy and it resulted in something like two waves crashing against each other.

Ershedro jumped into a group of Tribunal troops and span his longs around, smashing helmets and breaking ribs. Varro spotted the Nerevarine and ran at him, sword prepared to swipe at the neck.

Gratis spotted him coming and rose his mace. Varro swung for the neck but Gratis brought down his mace and knocked the sword down before pulling out a hidden dagger and thrusting deep into Varro's throat with a downward force, Gratis pulled it out ripping open Varro's throat and chest, he then kicked Varro over.

"That's for Selione you Imperial bastards!" shouted Gratis, the brave new warrior.

Shardae stabbed her sword into the back of a soldier before spinning around and swiping at the neck of another soldier. She saw a sword coming down at her so she raised her dagger just in time to defend herself. She kicked her attacker in the crotch ant plunged her sword into the back of his neck.

Vjad had his Daedric war axe in hand, he spotted a soldier running through the gates so he rushed over and swung the axe at the right time, the soldier ran right into his axe…Decapitation (50 points)

Sabre ran over the mountains that were at the edge of Balmora, he'd be able to get right behind the enemy without them seeing him and the troops that followed until it was to late. Sabre rushed over and ran down, he spotted the archers on the rooftops.

"Alright brave men and women of the Empire, we need to take out those archers. Rush them, and they shall find that we are of a higher quality. Do it for love, Do it for fame, Do it for the empire, Anyway you do it shall be fine!" he shouted before storming up a rooftop, he took up his Ebony broadsword in both hands and swiped at one of the two archers. The other one turned around and shot at him but Sabre was moving erratically and the arrow went way off. Sabre drove the sword into the archer and kicked him off the roof. Sabre watched as his men jumped from roof to roof fighting for a noble cause.

Aoku ran to the aid of a wounded soldier, an arrow had pierced his shoulder, but with a quick spell he was fine and ran to help in the fighting, she continued to run from soldier to soldier helping out.

It saw a soldier run behind Ershedro, Ershedro was busy smashing a dozen men with his longs to notice this one man, the soldier behind Ershedro sliced across Ershedro's back. Ershedro dropped to his knee's in pain. Aoku spotted a silver claymore on the floor. She picked it up and ran to his aid. One quick swipe was enough to kill the attacker. Ershedro staggered to his feet and Aoku healed him. He picked up a long he had dropped and charged the enemy.

Gratis ploughed through the enemy, smashing them aside with his mighty mace. It seemed that no one could challenge him. Sabre jumped from the last roof and landed on several soldiers, he proceeded to slice and swipe and the magicka users that backed up the rear troops. Ershedro was levelling the battlefield forcing a gap in the enemy lines. Vjad took his axe to the heart of the enemy and forced a second gap.

The three met up in the centre and started swiping blindly, knock back the enemy and breaking their formations. It was only a matter of time before they came face to face with Gratis.

Three prepared themselves for a tough fight. Gratis placed his mace at his side and drew his Enchanted Daedric Claymore. Three ran at him but a swipe of his deadly sword forced them back. They ran around and surrounded him. He looked around.

"Come and face me you Imperial wretches. Selione defeated the three of you, I shall kill you in his name." Said Gratis with a sharp tongue. Ershedro ran at him and span his longs with fury but Gratis flicked his Claymore up which knocked Ershedro off balance. He drove a fist to the face of Ershedro knocking him back.

Sabre jumped backwards to make a little more distance between Gratis and himself. He took out his bow prepared to fire three arrows simultaneously. He was about to shoot when he spotted some troops coming down the steps that lead to the richer part of town, they were going to ambush some imperial troops. He fired at the enemy at the steps and killed three of them, the bodies falling down the steps alerted his allies and they met the enemy threat. He was rewarded with a fireball to the chest from Gratis.

Vjad swung his axe at Gratis but Gratis hooked his sword in the curve of the axe and spun his sword, twisting Vjad's arm forcing him to drop his weapon. Gratis kicked Vjad against a wall, Vjad fell onto his ass dazed for a moment. Gratis drew his mace and walked up to Vjad preparing for a killing blow.

Vjad spotted a hammer at his side, he grabbed it as quickly as he could and swung it at Gratis's knee. Gratis fell as the hammer connected with his left knee. Vjad rolled to safety and grabbed his axe, it had been burnt slightly by Gratis's sword.

Sabre was back on his feet and shooting arrows at a seemly endless source of enemies. Ershedro looked to a ranger outside the city, the ranger gave a nod. Ershedro shouted for a retreat. Sabre and Vjad acknowledged this by shouting "Retreat!" and pushing the soldiers out of the city.

A Tribunal officer ordered the soldiers to regroup but Gratis told the officer that they must chase them down now.

"But sir, our formations are scattered and the troops confused! We must regroup before attempting to pursue!" pleaded the officer.

"Give the order to chase them NOW!" shouted Gratis.

"But sir…" he muttered.

"NOW!" shouted Gratis. But the officer's reluctance was his downfall, for as he the last imperial soldier ran from the city Ershedro gave the order for the hidden rangers to launch a volley of arrows at the city. Arrows rained down and pierced the armour and flesh of many soldiers. When the first volley was finished another was launched and further troops were killed.

"Do you see what your lack of faith has caused officer!" shouted Gratis from behind a house that was providing cover.

"Yes sir." Said the officer before plunging a sword into his chest, a wasted soldier in the eyes of Gratis.

"He could have done some good yet." Muttered Gratis before leading his remaining troops to fight the enemy that ran back into the city.

Shardae jumped from house to house until she spotted a good place that she could attack the enemy from. She snuck down and plunged her sword into many a soldier's back. But she was spotted and soldiers chased her across the river.

Moonstar approached the city and saw the battle.

"The Breton better be here." He said to himself walking down. As he approached the city soldiers that recognised his armour ran at him, he quickly dispatched them with ease.

He looked to the horizon; the moon would rise in moments.

"No, not now, I need my sanity to search the battlefield!" he shouted. But shouting did nothing once the moon rose, he could feel his body twist and turn as the transformation took place. But he was not the only Werewolf at Balmora, Aoku The Cursed also changed while healing a soldier.

Moonstar jumped to the battlefield and started tearing men aside, throwing them like rag dolls. While crossing the river chasing someone Aoku jumped into his path. The two looked at each other with hate. Snarling and growling the two ran at each other, tearing at each other's flesh and clashing claws they fought. Black hair was torn off flesh and blood poured. Teeth pierced the flesh of a shoulder and claws felt the warmth of fresh blood from the chest. The two grappled for a while before resuming the slashing.

One of the few actually Ordinators left in the battle spotted the Lycon beasts on a bridge. He searched a dead archers body and found a bow, but no silver arrows. He found them quickly on another body and prepared to shoot at the werewolves.

"Damned beasts!" he shouted whilst letting the first of the arrows fly to its target, the closer of the beasts. The arrow dug into its back and it let out a roar, it fled into the wilderness to lick its wounds for now. He launched an arrow at the second creature and it was hit hard in the chest, the werewolf fell off the bridge and landed in the river below.

The Ordinator had a quick laugh before feeling a sword drive through his lungs. It was Sabre who had killed the Ordinator.

"You should kill the person who threatens who my dead friend." Said Sabre before moving on to another enemy.

Gratis looked around, men fell and fire rose. The city was burning; all the fire spells that had been cast were proving their true danger. As much as he didn't want to do it, the strategically wise thing to do was flee the battle for now, it would allow him to return and fight another day. He shouted for a retreat, he shouted again and again. He watched men fall back while arrows and hate chased them. It was a dark day for both sides, blood and corpses filled the river and fire would burn most of the city to the ground. Death killed indiscriminately, it was the weapon death used to kill that had its prejudices.

The Tribunal ran from the fighting, but they ran with their heads held high. There is no dishonour in running from certain death. The empire tried to quell the fires and much of the city was saved but at the same time much was destroyed or damaged badly. Men and women helped in anyway they could helped rebuild the damaged city. Many people captured when they city fell were found alive, tied up in homes. Sadly some people had burned to death by the fires.

&&&&&&

Zebeyna tried to pull herself to her feet but her body was fidgeting and shaking. Magical energy still ran through her body, whoever The Puppet Master was he had a powerful connection to Magicka, he had trained for a very long time and perfected spells and techniques. He taken her equipment and gear and placed it somewhere in this magical domain that lay somewhere in Ebonheart and somewhere strange. She climbed into the bath he had provided; giving her a chance to recuperate after the torture, there was no point in killing her when she could still work. She felt the cold water cover her body as she sort of climbed in, more so falling in. She watched the red of her blood meld with the water; cuts and bruises covered her body. Some caused by a magical floating knife, some caused by her being thrown around the room by the strange magicka of his puppets. She placed her fingers to her nose, it hurt as she touched it.

"Fiend probably broke it." She said to herself. She looked at the room she was in. There was a small unmade bed, a dodgy looking table, this stone bath and one gap in the ceiling, iron grating was there to make sure she didn't climb out. There was some clothes on the table, it was placed neatly, probably the only neat thing in the whole room. By the looks of things it was the only piece of clothing in the room.

She slowly got out of the water, it was too cold ad was just giving her a cold. She put on the clothes, surprise surprise they were tight and revealing.

"What will the fucker come up with next to torment me?" She climbed into the bed and fell asleep. She was awoken very early by a loud knocking on the door. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the hole in the ceiling…still dark.

The door was opened and a seven-foot creature stood at the door. It had black tough looking skin, it was lynx eyed and had sharp teeth, long black hair, it reminded her of a black Orc but bigger and tougher looking. It held a crudely made broadsword in one hand, it grabbed her and pulled her from bed with the other hand.

"Your coming with me little miss." It snorted with an evil voice full of malice.

"Get your hands off me you monster!" she shouted while pulling herself away. He smashed her in the face with the back of his free hand.

"Come with me ye'little bitch and I might ask the lads to be nice with yea, not break you that is." He said again. He dragged her through long winding halls until they reached The Puppet Master.

"It would seem you have met my latest creation. Aren't the amazing?"" Said The Puppet Master.

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. You should speak with Vivec about them I'm sure he'd love to talk to you." She said quickly.

"I see you still have some cheek. Meshkull, you know how to sort that out." The Puppet Master said to the black creature.

"Yes master." He said pulling Zebeyna away. He brought her to some kind of torture room. He placed her on a table, she tried to retaliate so he rammed his elbow into her spine.

"Stay still bitch." He said pressing his smelly hand down on her head. She could feel something being wrapped around her wrists and ankles, keeping her in place with her front lying on the table. She heard him leave the room, outside she could hear him speak with another and soon the other came in, it was another of the monsters.

"So you're the new one is it? Well let's see what I can do here. Now if you be good this could be over very quickly, but if your bold then it could take a very long time." He said with a little snigger.

She heard him walking around for awhile before coming back. She heard him undoing the back of her dress to reveal her bare back. Then he rotated a big wheel that caused the table to go from horizontal to vertical. It was then that she felt the whip crack off her back, she gave a little moan as the sudden pain shot through her body.

"That's right moan, I like moaning." He laughed. He continued to whip her for sometime. When he was finished her back had many cuts all over.

"Now I'll be branding you, would you like a big mark or little'un?" he asked. She didn't reply.

"A big one then." He said before taking the burning emblem to her back. She left out a scream.

"Are we sorry for being cheeky?" he asked. She didn't reply.

"Silent again are we? Well I'll have to continue until you feel like apologising to me master, won't I?" he snorted. He searched the room for a nice toy to play with. He spotted a jagged sword.

"This will do nicely. This here sword has a very weak poison in it, it won't kill yea but it will leave your head throbbin' like mad." He said before giving her a little cut in the back.

"I think you back has taken enough punishment, lets switch sides shall we." He snorted. He undid the ropes around her ankles and then her wrists, she fell to the floor, she had almost no strength left. Once he had tied her up again he walked over to a cupboard a took out a potion, he forced her to drink it. It tasted disgusting but it healed her wounds and gave her some strength, it did nothing for the pain though.

"No point in you passing out is there." He chuckled. He took the sword and dug it into her chest just a little bit she bit her lip. He started to bring it down slowly tearing the flesh on her chest. She could help but scream again.

"Give up yet darling?" he asked. She gave a tiny nod.

"Want to say sorry?" he asked. Again she gave a tiny nod.

"Good girl." He said. He walked off and came back with a black collar. He put it around her neck, he held a rope that the collar was linked to. He untied the ropes around her wrists and ankles and dragged her out of the room. When he wasn't watching she grabbed a small knife and hide it somewhere no one would find it.

&&&&&&

Ryan and Vvardenfell walked in the countryside. It was peaceful, calming and just what Ryan needed. They weren't bothered by much wildlife, just a Kagouti or a cliff racer every now and then. When it got dark and it was time to rest they set up a fire and prepared a few sheets to sleep on. Both were completely unaware that there friends were storming Balmora right now, they didn't even know that Balmora had fallen in the first place, word hadn't reached anywhere by the time they left. They stayed up most of the night talking and they even did a little bit of laughing.

The next morning Vvardenfell looked around at the sheets Ryan slept in, but he was gone. She looked around and found him in a nearby pool, he was in a pool that was filled up by a waterfall, he was letting the waterfall on him, and his eyes were closed. It almost looked like he was sleeping, she tried to sneak up to him but she stepped on a twig and his eyes shot open and he spotted her, she gave a little giggle and he gave a tiny smile. She put one foot in the water, it was rather cold.

"It gets warmer once you get in." he said with a calm, kind voice.

"Not this time. And what are you doing?" She asked with a laugh.

"I'm not quite sure, but this is kind of nice." He said.

"I'll take your word for it." She said before going off to start breakfast.

&&&&&&

Vivec was in a trance, not the regular kind, the kind where your mind travels and some of the magical sort happens. He was placed in the chambers of Sotha Sil.

"Sotha Sil, my brethren, how are you?" asked Vivec.

"I am stressed, I continue to feed my wisdom to Gratis Clout, and it has saved his life on more then one occasion, but this takes up all of my time and I am unsure if I can aid in any other way." He said.

"I understand, I too should press on with work. I shall leave you." And with that the image of Vivec vanished.

**Gevaden: I hope you like the chapter, I'm not sure how long it'll take me to right the next chapter. I might just play some video games and get ideas from them, in fact I will…right now. Review please.**


	8. Chapter 8

Gevaden: I hoped you liked the last chapter and I hope you like this one! If you have any suggestions or queries tell me in a review.

Aoku had been washed downstream a little; she was just outside the city. She got up and her body was aching all over between the cuts, bruises, the broken arrow in her and where that other werewolves teeth had punctured her skin…she was lucky to be alive.

She crawled a little towards the town but what little strength she had soon left her and she fell unconscious.

Shardae spotted her from a distance and ran to her aid, she lifted her to a large house in Balmora where several injured people where recovering, a priest there was healing people and applying potions but he had a lot of people to get through.

Vjad, Sabre, Ershedro, Sparhawk and the off duty soldiers were aiding in the rebuilding in some of the damaged homes but it was pointless, Back in Vivec Ordinators were preparing their maces and gathering prisoners eager to reclaim their good standing in the eyes of Vivec, people who needed money badly were handed a sword and shield and told were to go. The Tribunal needed to take over Balmora because if they did then it would be a prime location to strike the rest of the imperial presence on the island and assure victory. Gratis was personally selecting the finest generals and officers to lead the assault. It would be the single largest military force seen in the war yet and with Varro dead and Ryan missing (Gratis had noticed his absence in the battle for Balmora) then they could not hope to rally enough troops to defend the partially ruined city. The Tribunal was funding for mass teachings of conjuration magicka to bolster their forces even further.

Meanwhile far away from the fighting Ryan and Vvardenfell enjoyed a good sleep that lasted late into morning. When they did wake they enjoyed hunting for breakfast and general bonding, the break was exactly what Ryan needed and it wasn't doing Vvardenfell any harm either.

&&&&&&

Zebeyna on the other hand was plotting an escape. It was the middle of the night and she was just back from 'duties.' She waited until there was dead silence and then took a large loose brick from the wall. She started ramming the steel door with the brick. This caused a lot of noise and a guard was sent rushing. He opened the door to see the disturbance and she slipped out her knife. As soon as he opened the door she drove the knife deep into his neck. He was carrying a large candle that had a large flame. She hadn't expected the flame but she knew it would help her burn this foul place. She took it and ran down the halls. She made her way to the training room which had many dummies made of wood and straw which she of course set on fire. She ran from room to room setting everything possible on fire then she hit the jackpot…a storage room full of alcohol. She threw the alcohol around in all the rooms and then placed the flame to the trail that lay behind her. She watched the fire run along the trail and find new things to burn…watching this place burn was the most satisfying thing she had ever seen.

She opened the door behind her and made her way to The Puppet Masters domain. But much to her surprise he was nowhere in sight. She found the puppet of herself and anybody she knew and placed them in a cloth she folded into a make shift bag. She looked around the room and found her belongings. She put on her own clothes and equipped her gear. She placed the cloth in her backpack and headed for the exit…. there he was, right in front of the door.

"You've caused me a little set back." He said, his face half covered by the hood of his cloak.

"A little setback? You fool this whole place is burning! We have to get out of here!" she shouted.

"You idiot! You've set fire to the top floor and the only exits are steel doors, the fire will be contained and you'll have killed a single of my minions in the process, in the time it took you to kill him and set this place on fire a hundred more of his kind have spawned in the catacombs beneath this place. I'll kill you quickly or slowly, its your choice." He sneered.

She could have cried, but she didn't she just threw her knife at him, it got him right in the heart and he died. She took his enhanced amulet, staff, cloak, and rings and left. She ran into the centre of Ebonheart and looked at the tower she had run out of, it wasn't burning.

She ran from the city and headed for Vivec, she vowed to return some day and kill those monsters.

&&&&&&

Kedar and Turv walked through Vivec. Watching as men and women clumsily swung swords and axes. Some of them knew a spell or two but most where just for making life easier.

Turv had gotten much stronger since his fight with Ryan back a few months ago. He had caught the attention of Gratis and was very proud of doing so. Now he and Kedar had to make sure that one hundred and sixty two people that had offered to fight in exchange of money or time off prison where capable of fighting and trustworthy. Several convicts seemed likely to attempt an escape to he had them sent back to prison. The rest were okay and Turv and Kedar spent the day teaching them the basics of swordplay and a little on archery.

Gratis dropped down later on to ask them how things were going.

"I think they will make excellent shields but that's about it." Said Kedar bluntly.

"Do you agree Turv?" asked Gratis.

"I think Kedar is a little unfair, they will hold their own in numbers but most will not see the end of the battle." Said Turv.

"I do not like the sound of it either way." Said Gratis.

"Well in all fairness they have crude weapons, a days training and most of them are either too old or too young. We are most definitely sending these people to their graves." Said Kedar.

"What do you suggest?" asked Gratis.

"Give them any left over armour we have, equip them with any decent weapons we have and break them into smaller training groups and of course send down more people to train them. We have plenty of adventurers and generals that could do so." Said Kedar.

"Do you agree Turv?" asked Gratis.

"Mostly." He said.

"Mostly?" asked Gratis.

"Well we don't want them to trample each other, train them in cycles, teach some of them to use a sword and shield while teaching others to use a bow while teaching others healing magicka." Said Turv with confidence.

"That would actually be a very good idea." Said Kedar while patting Turv on the shoulder.

"Then it shall be so, I shall send people down to you, break them into groups." Said Gratis as he left.

&&&&&&

Meanwhile Jaros was arriving in Caldera. His men went to all the inns or anywhere they could find accommodation and got decent sleep. Meanwhile Jaros looked for Ryan. Only to discover that Ryan had gone on a little vacation.

"What sort of general goes on vacation at such a time? Is fame suddenly seems undeserving!" said Jaros.

"I don't know what sort of general he is but I'll tell you one thing, he wins battles and that's all that matters to the Empire in such desperate times." Said the Innkeeper.

"When should he be back?" asked Jaros.

"Usually a fortnight, but a lot of the mercenaries were told that he'd be back sooner because of the troubles."

"Why were the mercenaries told this?"

"Well Ryan hires a lot of Mercenaries to protect his plantation but at the moment he using them as soldiers for his private army, which seems to be integrating with the Imperial forces slowly."

"I see." Said Jaros before taking a large gulp of Sujamma.

&&&&&&

Ryan and Vvardenfell prepared to go to sleep when they heard footsteps coming in their direction. The footsteps were to loud and to many for Ryan to rest with ease and soon he discovered whom they belonged to, An Ordinator death squad.

They surrounded Ryan and Vvardenfell. Vvardenfell summoned her Knife and lunged at one of them, piercing his shoulder and cutting deep. The Ordinator fell back and his partners rushed Vvardenfell.

Ryan picked up his sword and swung it in an arc to fend them off, most of them pulled back bar one unfortunate rookie.

They started casting their spells trying to weaken Ryan put his fast foot work allowed him to avoid most of them.

Vvardenfell started swiping at one that was close to her, she sliced his arm but he retaliated by grabbing her and throwing a few feet. She landed hard and hit her head against a rock.

Ryan saw this and was infuriated. He cast his lightning spell and fried most the Ordinators there and then. There was three of them left. They tried to run but Ryan grabbed one of them, the one that had thrown Vvardenfell. Ryan took up his sword and forced it up the Ordinators back, it emerged from his chest and Ryan threw him to the floor. The other Ordinators were gone.

Ryan ran to Vvardenfell's side, she had lost consciousness. Ryan started to rummage through some bags and things but found nothing he could use to aid her. Ryan had practiced restoration magicka years ago but could remember just about nothing.

Ryan fell to his knees beside her and kissed her forehead.

"Wake up please, by the gods please wake up!" he whispered.

"I shall pledge my allegiance to whomever can help her!" he shouted to the heavens. His shout was not unheard, it fell upon ears indeed, for moments later a third person was there. Ryan looked in the direction of the newcomer.

"Sotha Sil." Ryan muttered.

"Indeed, and I heard your plea. I can save the girl…but for a price of course." He said.

"What do you want?" asked Ryan.

"I'd like to take you up on that offer, your allegiance that is. I'll save her and you shall fight for the Tribunal. Do we have a deal?" asked Sotha Sil with a calm voice that just slightly gave away his feeling of self-importance at the moment.

"…Fine, I accept." Said Ryan dropping his head, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth.

There was a flash of light and Ryan was blind for a few minutes but when he woke up he was on a bed, saturated in sweat. Saryoni was sitting on a chair not far from him.

"What has happened?" asked Ryan as his memory was distorted and his head pounding.

"You have sold your soul to Sotha Sil. You have betrayed your people, it is a foul act. But you did it for the rest reason possible." Said Saryoni pointing to a sleeping Vvardenfell.

"Perhaps." Said Ryan standing up slowly.

"Your her Hands armour is in that chest at the foot of the bed." Said Saryoni leaving the room.

"But I wasn't wearing that when I went to the wilderness." Said Ryan.

"Sotha Sil has a way of getting things in situations like this." Replied Saryoni. Ryan then spotted an odd choker around his neck; by pressing his head down and stretching enough he could see the Sotha Sil Symbol on the front of it.

"What is this ornament?" asked Ryan to Saryoni.

"It is a foul talisman, if you betray us, Sotha Sil will kill you with it, it's his way of keeping you in line. But also it is keeping you alive, if you remove it while its enchantment is active you shall also die." Said Saryoni with a grim expression.

"It has been requested that you lead the assault on Balmora, sadly you must do it. It is a good thing that you come hear, it is a tragedy why you came.

&&&&&&

Moonstar slept, his wounds were bad but not enough to stop him from his mission, find and kill Ryan. Although his mission came to an end when the image of Almalexia came to him.

"Moonstar my child, you need no longer hunt the Breton as he has seen the error of his ways and know when he wears the armour it is to fight for a decent cause." She said, the wind distorting her image.

"Do you speak what I think you do? Has the Breton joined us or are this my ears deceiving me?"

"Your words are correct, he has indeed know bows to the Tribunal. You shall come back to my side know." She said.

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure!" he said jumping to his feet.

"We shall see." She said with a melancholy face but the image disappeared before Moonstar could properly analyse it the way a son can see if a mother is in pain.

&&&&&&

He was not the only one who was seeing images, that night everyone I have written in the war had a dream. Heroes and Heroines saw themselves in a black void, then they saw fields of bodies, mourning families, cripples, people who had been devastated by some storm of chaos. Then a voice was heard by all who had the dream. It told them of the atrocities they had caused, it listed the people they had killed, it showed them the pain and suffering they caused with their war for territory. But towards the end of the dream everyone was sent flying up a mountain and they saw two figures, each one with a sword at their waist, each one preparing to attack the other.

"These two have caused more pain and suffering then any others, they are the chieftains of chaos. They shall be the cause of a great rip on the world itself if their fire is not quelled. They are the physical manifestation of this war, they are your most powerful warriors but they are pawns, pawns to you, pawns to the king the fight for, pawns to their people. Their swords are drenched with the blood of a thousand sins. Both believe they fight for freedom. They are both fools. Look for the wise man in white robes for it is he that knows how to restore the damage they have done, the damage you have done." Said the voice. It faded away soon after and was replaced by the singing of angels. The two figures were Gratis and Ryan. The dream ended with the two swinging their swords at one another, then there was white, then the warriors awoke.

Vjad, Ershedro, Sabre, Sparhawk and Shardae disgusted the dream at the breakfast table.

"You had the same dream you say?" asked Sabre to Ershedro.

"Yeah the very same, you were nowhere in sight but it's the same as yours right down to the voice, even Ryan and Gratis." Said Ershedro.

"It's been sent out by someone very powerful, someone with much more power then the Tribunal, that's for sure." Said Vjad, who was eating very little.

"You better eat up Vjad, we have lots of building to do." Said Shardae.

"She has a point, you'll need your strength, the Tribunal could strike again at any time." Said Sparhawk, who was constantly guessing that the Tribunal would attack, nobody knew how right he was.

&&&&&&

Vivec stood in his palace with The Holy One next to him. He was waiting for the presence of Gratis, Turv, Astelan, Kedar, Saryoni and of course Ryan. But he didn't have a meeting in mind. He was going to 'purge the evil' from Ryan.

Everybody walked in and made their way to a spot around the room except for Ryan who had been told to stand in front of Vivec.

"Do you know why you have been summoned?" asked The Holy One to Ryan.

"No, be quick about this." Barked Ryan.

"Cheeky, that will never do. But now we must purge the dent that the Empire has left on you. Answer a question and depending on your answer we reward you or purge you suitably." Said The Holy One before taking a deep breath and pressing on with his question.

"The Empire is bloated and corrupt while the Tribunal is wise and knows what's best for the people of Morrowind, True or False?" asked The Holy One.

"False." Answered Ryan quickly.

"Wrong." Said Vivec as he cast a spell. Multiple bolts of Magicka shot from Vivec's hands and hit Ryan right in the chest, he was sent hurtling through the room until he crashed into the door.

"The Wrath of Vivec is the most devastating spell, I'm impressed that your alive, not surprised but Impressed." Said Vivec as if he was bestowing some great blessing. Ryan slowly pulled himself up. Vivec raised an eyebrow, the Breton should not be able to get up, that spell should have killed him outright; he should by no means get up after it hit him.

"Do you wish to continue your interrogation?" asked Ryan holding his ribs.

"No that shall do, we only needed to ask that one question. We shall be evaluating your faith over the next few days." Said The Holy One before ushering everyone out of the room.

"That is very unexpected." Said The Holy One to Vivec.

"Indeed, he is stronger then we thought. But he fights for us now, and Gratis shall make sure that things go to plan." Said Vivec.

&&&&&&

Gevaden: That's another chapter finished. I hope you liked it, I might not get another chapter up for awhile but depending on the number of reviews I get I might give this fic a bit more priority. Please R&R.


	9. Just to Clear things up

Gevaden: This chapter is just to review what's happened and who's where, who's doing what, where's loyal to who and the sort. Just to clear things up encase you're confused I know I am!

Saryoni walked into Vivec with his report in hand.

"Do you have the report?" asked Vivec.

"Right here sir!" he said holding it up proudly.

"Then tell me, how are things?" asked Vivec.

Saryoni's report on the war

The City of Sardith Mora is the best-defended city in the country, although it had a large Imperial presence at the beginning it was taken from the inside by the proud Tribunal forces. It's many walls and powerful Temple presence assures its safety, it would take a formidable army indeed to take it over.

The City of Vivec is the second best defended city in the country, having the Ordinators, many Buoyant Armigers and more troops of the recently created "Tribunal Strike force" which is an Army of rag tag troops and mercenaries. It is of course, under the control of the Tribunal.

The City of Caldera is the third best-defended city in the country. It has a very large number of Imperial troops, mercenaries and now a Nordic force present. One, Jaros, chieftain of Thirsk, leads the Nordic army in Caldera and Spies report he has come to fight against us as we pillaged several parts of Solstheim. Some reports state he could be of Lycanthropic nature.

The City Of Balmora while being in severely damaged state is nonetheless rated as the fourth best defended city as it has a large Imperial presence and Ryan's personal army that is still unaware of his defection. It is under Imperial control.

The City of Ebonheart is under Imperial control and is heavily defended encase of an attack from Vivec. As a result it is ranked as the fifth best-defended city.

The City of Ald'Ruhn is if anything under Redoran control, Redoran claim to the public that it is loyal to the Empire but Redorans higher ranked members tell us this that this is merely a ploy to lure the Empire into a strong sense of false sense of security. We believe them, as many of the highly ranked members are Temple Zealots or anti-outlander.

The City Of Mournhold is a place of extreme combat, the temple is constantly under siege by Imperial forces. Her hands are fending off the Imperial legions but with the aid of the Royal Guard the Empire is slowly killing them off, it is expected that with no supply of food and dropping numbers the temple shall fall in days, as a result Almalexia shall be killed by the Empire.

The City or rather village of Seeyda neen is under slight Imperial control, there is nothing more then a dozen troops there, but because of its position and size is of little interest to anyone. It is the least defended city. Because the smaller villages and towns have flocked to bigger cities for safety there are no more towns bar perhaps some ashlanders camps and Some wizards that care not for the war. Most of the Telvanni district cities have fled to Sardith Mora, giving it a powerful supply of Mages.

As for the prominent Generals and Officers in the war, they follow.

Tribunal Officers and Generals include:

Gratis Clout A.K.A. The Nerevarine. He is currently in Vivec.

Turv. He is also in Vivec and is currently preparing peasants to assault Balmora.

Ryan. He is here in Vivec sadly his allegiance is reluctant. His lover (Vvardenfell) shall keep him here.

Kedar Emris. Also here in Vivec training soldiers.

Astelan. He is here in Vivec awaiting orders; he also is intercepting various assassination attempts on important people here in Vivec.

Vvardenfell. She is back in Vivec after a brief allegiance to the Empire; she is currently involved with the Breton Ryan, she maybe our tool to controlling the warrior.

Moonstar. Current whereabouts are unknown; he was last seen in the battle for Balmora, but was forced to flee because of several arrows that struck his back. He is one of Her Hands and oddly enough the adopted child of Almalexia, even stranger he is a werewolf.

Zebeyna. Whereabouts also unknown. She was sent to assassinate people in Ebonheart sometime ago but there has been no word from her.

Imperial Officers and Generals include:

Vjad. Currently in Balmora, he is the right hand man to Ryan but it is expected that he will not join the Tribunal.

Sabre. Also in Balmora. His actual name is currently unknown, our priests are looking into it, but certain files have disappeared.

Ershedro. Also in Balmora, these three have formed an odd kinship, they travelled together from Caldera to Vivec where they were captured but they where released later. Some stories claim that a Werewolf was the cause of the capture but I believe it was the many Ordinators that pursued them and arrested them. They stay together and the three are a devastating force.

Shardae. She is in Balmora, she defected to the Empire cause, it is expected because of her friend Vvardenfell, she also stole the map of Vivec that includes the secret entrance/exit to Vivec's palace.

Aoku The Cursed. She too is in Balmora. She has a great admiration for Ryan. It is expected that she will join us because of this. It is known that her nickname (The Cursed) is because of her Lycanthropic condition.

Sparhawk. Also in Balmora. He is mainly in this war to get the chance to kill Kedar, the man who killed his father. Oddly enough both warriors (Kedar and Sparhawk) share the exact same almost unique fighting style, two swords.

Jaros. He is in Caldera. The Chieftain of Thirsk is not actually loyal to the Empire, he came to join Ryan in the war against the Tribunal. It is not expected that he will still join Ryan. He brings with him a Nordic army.

Isude Neverendel. Currently in Caldera. He seems to be following Jaros from the shadows but our Ordinator Death Squads spotted him several times. He is a mercenary and rumour states he has personal reasons for wanting to join Ryan in combat.

That is the list of cities and Generals/Officers.

This is a brief summary of what has happened since the destruction of Red Mountain.

Ryan and Gratis, two people suspected of being the Nerevarine entered Red Mountain. While some stories indicate that it was truly Ryan that defeated Doguth Ur and Gratis merely stepped in to deal a death blow, since neither of them have commented on the events in the volcano we believe these stories were fabricated. When asked to comment on the events the two will only answer with "Doguth Ur is no more." After they left the mountain it collapsed. The next day the rubble had simply disappeared. Grass is beginning to grow on the land.

Some years passed after this, during this time it is officially announced that Gratis is indeed The Nerevarine, as Ryan did not come forward to claim the title as his own it was further reinforced that Gratis is the Nerevarine.

Five years after Red Mountain, The Tribunal declares war on the Empire presence in Morrowind. With Gratis leading the armies The Tribunal wins battle after battle.

Four months into the war Ryan gets involved siding with the Empire after his family is threatened by careless Tribunal negotiators.

A team lead by Vvardenfell aided by Turv and Shardae is sent from Vivec to assault enemy territory, in the dead of night the group is attacked by Ryan and his army. For some reason instead of the two small armies fighting they gathered around in a circle and watched Ryan fight against both Turv and Vvardenfell. I believe it is because if Ryan died his men would anyway and same thing if Turv and Vvardenfell. Shardae fled the battle and is one of few surviving Tribunal forces from that skirmish. It is at this battle that Vvardenfell leaves with Ryan. Turv was defeated but was not killed. Turv has been on a training regime since and has become an excellent combatant since; Gratis claims, "He has become one of our top five warriors, Ryan and myself included."

The three Empire generals Vjad, Ershedro and Sabre are captured in Vivec and take part in a fight against Selione, they earn their release by surviving. Vjad is beaten badly and sent home as a warning to Ryan, Ryan comes to Vivec personally and alone with the intentions of fighting Selione in one on one combat. Selione is killed.

While Ryan and Vvardenfell are out on what seems to be a vacation an Ordinator death squad finds them. The Ordinators are defeated but not without striking a lethal blow to Vvardenfell. Ryan makes a pact with Sotha Sil, if Sotha Sil saves Vvardenfell then Ryan will fight for the Tribunal, Ryan agreed.

It would seem that anywhere the Tribunal is involved in combat when Ryan is present with the enemy force we lose, this is proof of both his battle ability and military expertise.

There have been several battles for Balmora, the last resulting in it being reclaimed be Imperial forces, Varro died in the battle, killed by Gratis.

The Tribunal craftsmanship is being but to the test right now as we forge battle machines and weapons in vast bulk to prepare one devastating assault on Balmora. Even if Ryan were with them they would fall.

My personal expectations for the future are as follows:

Mass Tribunal forces shall take Balmora, the largest army seen in the war so far. Sadly not long or before this The Temple in Mournhold shall fall and Almalexia shall die, it is inevitable.

In an act of retaliation for the loss of Almalexia Tribunal forces will strike quickly and hard on anything that the Empire leaves badly defended, this will slowly start the end of the empire presence in Morrowind.

The Tribunal will win the war for it is prophecy.

Signed

Saryoni.

"Thank you for that, it was interesting." Said Vivec before ushering Saryoni away.

Gevaden: I hope that helped you as much as it helped Vivec. If you have anything you'd like to say about the characters such as whose your favourite or least favourite and why please do. Also I'd like to see a vote that I'll take into consideration, If Ryan should attempt to kill Sotha Sil as a way of freeing himself from his control? Yes or No.


	10. Chapter 9

**Gevaden: Here's the next trilling instalment of The War For Morrowind! Who knows what's in this chapter! Romance? Action? Comedy? Nobody knows…**

Vvardenfell walked around Vivec, it was nice to be back in the city. She saw lots of familiar faces and met old friends, and while walking towards the Arena Canton she came across Turv.

"Turv!" she shouted to get his attention, he turned and spotted his good friend, she ran over and gave him a hug.

"Did you come hear with the Breton?" he asked. She gave a nod.

"Did the Breton hurt you? Torture you?" he asked.

"Don't be silly, Ryan's really nice you have to give him a chance!" she said slapping his arm playfully.

"Why? After he humiliated me in that fight! After he captured you!" he asked.

"He could have killed you, but instead he just made it look like he had killed you and gave you another chance. How have you been?" she asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"I've been good, I've trained hard and I think if he hadn't defected I might have been able to kill him!" he said while cracking his knuckles.

"Maybe, have any ladies caught your eye?" she asked, hoping he had found a girlfriend.

"No, not at this very moment. How about you?" he asked.

"Well I might have met someone…" she said starring at the sky.

"Not him!" said Turv disapprovingly.

"Yes me and Ryan are together, it happened in the wilderness." She said with a giggle.

"I'll never understand women!" he said scratching his head.

"So are you on any special missions?" she asked, changing the subject again.

"Actually yes, I'm training the less capable recruits how to fight for the upcoming assault." He said proudly.

"What assault?" she enquired.

"We're launching a massive assault on Balmora, the city will devastated. Engineers are constructed catapults, wheeled battering rams. We've taken slaves from the Telvanni district, prisoners from every available prison and any peasant that's willing to fight and turned them into armed warriors, plus a fifth of the Buoyant Armigers and the rest of the Ordinators. It's going to be overkill!" he said rubbing his hands together.

"Tell me you're joking!" she said.

"Oh no, their hasn't been an army this large seen on a single battlefield possible ever! Even the people of the fishing villages of up north are joining the fight! The empire won't stand a chance…well not since Ryan's left them. Without his military expertise, strategic planning and fighting capability they'll be wiped out! Look I gotta go, I'll see you later yeah?" he said with a huge grin, he wasn't noticing the look of horror on her face.

He ran off somewhere else and Vvardenfell started thinking of all the people that would be killed by such an assault.

"Shardae, Saber, Vjad, Ershedro, Aoku, Sparhawk and countless others!" she ran back to the house she and Ryan had been given. It was a nice house in the Hlaalu Canton, Ryan being a high ranked member of the great house was able to get the house easily.

&&&&&&

Aoku was in a sweat, she woke up in a bad state, well she always did but this time it was worst. Shardae spotted her.

"Are you okay?" asked Shardae.

"No, something's wrong! Something's very wrong!" she said, a dream she had told her so, but she couldn't remember the dream.

"What's wrong?" Shardae asked.

"I don't know, that's the scary part." She said lying down.

"Maybe some rest will do you good?" said Shardae lifting the blanket over her shoulders. Shardae put her hand to Aoku's head.

"Your really hot, I think you might be sick. Maybe that rest I better then first thought." Said Shardae.

&&&&&&

Zebeyna crashed around the streets of Ebonheart; a lack of nourishment was taking its toll. She fell about clumsily until a man spotted her.

"Are you okay darling?" asked the man.

"I'm fine, and I'm not your darling!" protested Zebeyna, she was trying to be rude hoping that the man would leave, but her strength gave way and she collapsed.

When she woke up she was in a cosy bed and there was some soup next to her. When she looked around she spotted the man.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Idius, I spotted you collapse so I thought it best to bring you back here. I'd hate to think that a friend had died." He said.

"Not to be rude but I'm a total stranger to you!" she said.

"A stranger is just a friend you haven't met, That's what I always say." He said slapping his knee.

"Okay…what do you want?" she said raising an eye.

"Nothing at all, I'm just helping out, it never hurts to help." He said, he could understand her state of mind in the current times.

"Alright if you say so." She said lifting the soup up to her mouth, and then she thought to herself, what if this soup was poisoned? What if this Idius person was an Imperial assassin with unorthodox methods? Or worse what if he worked for The Puppet Master! She put the soup down.

"That eh…seems a little hot I'll let it cool for now." She said as a cover.

"Fair enough. But you gotta eat something, I'll get some bread and a drop of Sujamma." He said as he left the room.

"Sujamma I'll drink!" she said to herself, suddenly she was very happy, she deserved a good drink after the shit she had been through.

&&&&&&

Moonstar sat in meditation. The winds whispered to him, then she spoke to him, his love, his mother.

"Child, you must return! You are the only one that can save me!" she said before she was forced to leave.

"My Lady Almalexia! What is wrong!" he shouted to the wilderness, no response came. He started to run for Ebonheart, but he wasn't moving fast enough, he called upon the power of his amulet; he felt his body change, with this is raced through the trees and was quickly at Ebonheart.

&&&&&

Ryan was walking through the streets of Vivec, just going through the stalls looking for anything Vvardenfell and he might need. But Ordinators interrupted his shopping.

"You are to report to the High Fane now." Said an Ordinator.

"Say please." Said Ryan, not joking the least bit.

"Report there NOW you N'WAH!" shouted the same Ordinator. Ryan clenched his fist, he could have killed this Ordinator so quickly, but he couldn't, not unless he was defending himself.

"I'll report there when I'm good and ready." Said Ryan with his back turned to the Ordinator, Ryan even started chatting to a merchant.

"How dare you? You face me! You are under our command not vice versa!" said the Ordinator with a hand to his mace.

"I don't care about the Tribunal, if Vivec has an order for me then he can tell me himself not one of his lapdogs." Ryan said with a slight cocky tone.

"I'll see about that you N'wah!" shouted the Ordinator taking out his mace. Once the Ordinator swung at Ryan then it was time to teach the Ordinators a lesson and indeed the Ordinator swung at Ryan. Ryan dodged the swing and then twisted the Ordinator's good hand around to his back, the Ordinator left out a moan. There was one other Ordinator there and he made a rush at Ryan. Ryan took the mace of the first Ordinator, Ryan wasn't great with a mace but he was better then these clowns. Ryan gave both of them a good bash on the head. The two fell into a pile before slowly crawling away. Ryan went to the High Fane and found Saryoni waiting for him.

"Ah Ryan, just a quick job for you. Will you go under the Arena Canton, there's been some attacks made against a few Ordinators. The attackers are strong so you might want to take your equipment. There's a special reward if you do." Said Saryoni.

"What kind of reward?" asked Ryan, caring little for the Tribunals troubles.

"A book on the designs of Sotha Sil, it will if anything give you answers on removing that pendant."

"Why would you help me?" asked Ryan who was genuinely curious as you would be I'm sure.

"I believe that nobody should be forced to fight for someone, your presence here is wonderful but it's for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps someday you will join us by your own choice. If you get out of here that is." Said Saryoni.

"I suppose. You're a better leader then the leaders of the Empire, it's a shame really." Said Ryan leaving for his house to get his suit of Her Hands armour.

&&&&&&

Back in Balmora Ershedro lifted blocks to a little place where he was stacking them, from their people took blocks and placed them in an attempt at rebuilding houses. Ershedro placed several blocks on the floor.

"We should be preparing defences, there's an attack coming its as clear as the day." Said Ershedro to Vjad.

"Actually the day is rather cloudy, it'll rain soon, speaking of which it hasn't rained in months." Replied Vjad.

"Yeah, and this looks like a big storm." Said Sparhawk as he joined the conversation.

"Why aren't the women helping in lifting the blocks?" asked Ershedro.

"They're cooking, as women should be!" joked an Orc, this earned a big laugh from several others.

"Shut your face you green prick!" shouted Ershedro, as the Orc had insulted his friends.

"Do you plan on making me?" asked the Orc, dropping his blocks.

"Maybe I do." Said Ershedro taking off his gloves and walking towards the Orc.

"I've been dying to prove that without your longs you're nothing." Said the Orc.

"Well this nothing is about to kick your ass." Shouted Ershedro as the two squared off.

Sabre started to walk over to stop the fight, but Vjad stopped him.

"Why are you stopping me? We have enough trouble fighting against the Tribunal without our own men kicking the crap out of each other." Protested Sabre.

"Your judgement is wise as always Sabre but that Orc has been causing a lot of trouble, as far as we know he's been stealing gear and selling Skooma to soldiers. This way we can stop him." said Vjad.

Ershedro waited for the Orc to throw the first punch, that way he could claim the fight was self-defence. He didn't wait long the Orc soon struck him; the Orc was as fast as a cliff racer and as strong as an Ogrim, this would be a good fight.

A group gathered around and started cheering, the two basically stood face to face and punched each other in the face, they didn't even move around.

"A hundred gold pieces says that the Orc will win." Said Sabre to Vjad.

"Do you have such little faith in your friend? Five hundred says that Ershedro will win." Said Vjad with a smile.

"Five hundred it is." Replied Sabre.

The Orc, Grak-Uder swung his fist around and it cracked into the side of Ershedro's head. Ershedro stumbled to the side before sending a punch straight at the nose of Grak-Uder; the Orc fell over and wiped a big drop of blood from his nose.

"I know when I've lost a fight, you win and I take back what I said." Said the Grak-Uder before extending a hand to Ershedro, the two shook hands and got back to work.

Sabre reluctantly paid the gold to Vjad.

&&&&&&

Ryan explored the Arena undergrounds and quickly caught the source of the trouble, Eno Hlaalu. The two stared eye to eye.

"Will you turn me in?" asked Eno.

"Of course not, how could I if the attacker hit me with a spell that put me to sleep and I didn't even see his face?" asked Ryan, winking at Eno.

"That's a fair point." Said Eno, before blasting a spell at Ryan who fell asleep and was placed where Ordinators would find him.

An Ordinator found Ryan asleep in a corner and woke him up.

"Are you okay?" asked the Ordinator.

"I was hit by a spell, forced me to sleep. The scoundrel got away and I didn't even see him." replied Ryan.

"It was probably a high ranked member of the Dark brotherhood, Astelan has killed a dozen of those assassins in his nightly patrols. There're everywhere, you just go back to your house I'll explain what happened to the to you in my report." Said the Ordinator.

"Thank you, here take this, you helped me and you deserve it." Said Ryan handing the nice man a bag of gold.

"Well sir, if you insist." He said, giving Ryan nod. Ryan headed home, satisfied that he had screwed over the Tribunal, what the Tribunal didn't know was that Ryan was a member of the respected Assassins Guild. But before Ryan had even reached his house a messenger approached him.

"Ryan? You're Ryan aren't you?" asked the messenger.

"Yes why?" asked Ryan.

"You are requested at the palace, Vivec has a job for you." He said, Ryan went to the palace.

Ryan arrived in the Palace to find Vivec, Sotha Sil and The Holy One waiting for him.

"What is this about?" asked Ryan who was by now rather tired.

"Sotha Sil is going to Mournhold to fend off the Royal Guard and your going with him." said Vivec.

"I'll be watching you, so will Her Hands, screw up and your dead but if you do a good job there'll be something very nice in it for you." Laughed Sotha Sil. The two were quickly transported to Almalexia's domain. Ryan spotted the Lady of Mercy quickly, they had met before but last time he was honoured to be in her presence, this time he cared little. Sotha Sil was asking Almalexia if another attack was expected soon, she replied that they would be back in an hour or so.

But as the attack on Almalexia's domain began, Gratis brought Vivec's super army over the last hill to Balmora…

**Gevaden: There's another chapter**, **tell me your favourite character and why plus your most hated character and why, to help me design cooler characters.**


	11. Chapter 10

Gevaden: Here it is, you've been waiting for it…the battle for Balmora. I won't bore you with this opening stuff (I'll do that at the end of the chapter) so here it is.

An archer walking atop the walls of Balmora was the first to spot the army, Gratis was standing on a large boulder and was shouting at the men to line up at the city.

The Archer shouted what he spotted and it was Ershedro who ran to see what was going on. What he saw was a seemly endless ocean of steal and fire.

The troops in Balmora had been expecting this and were quick to get into positions, archers at the walls, axe men hidden behind the walls, swordsmen waiting with magic users behind them. Long range archers at the back of the city and on the houses.

Meanwhile Tribunal crossbowmen lined up in front of the city, waiting for the order to shoot. Bombs of magicka were hidden in the lines read to blow the walls to bits.

The archers readied their bows and aimed at someone, also waiting for the signal to attack. Sabre was also atop the walls with his Daedric longbow ready. Vjad was waiting with the long distance bowmen, waiting to give the order. Ershedro was at the head of the melee troops; he wanted to be in the thickest of the fighting.

Turv looked to Gratis.

"Should I give the order to charge?" asked Turv.

"No, if we rush them then their archers will strike us down and all that will arrive in the city will be broken lines. We must fight from a distance first." Said Gratis, as he did this he raised a hand into the arm, several drills had trained the crossbowmen to react to this, they aimed and prepared to fire.

As the archers atop the walls saw the enemy prepare then they responded. Sabre knew that if he waited much longer then Gratis would fire so he just gave the order. Arrows flew from the walls and pelted the Tribunal flanks, the crossbowmen were quick to respond and soon arrows were flying everywhere. Men were losing eyes and lives with every round of arrows fired. Then Vjad gave the order and suddenly a lot more arrows fired from Balmora. Troops were mowed down on both sides.

Gratis ordered the "march." Troops with large shields covered their heads and walked to the walls. Once they were close enough they moved the shields and revealed their ladders, which were raised to the walls.

Imperial troops hiding behind the walls rushed out and started hacking and slashing. Men on the top of the walls knocked down the ladders before being raised again and a cycle was made out of this. Some troops made it up to the walls but were cut down quickly.

Ershedro wanted to rush out to the enemy but he knew that open battle was suicide; the sheer numbers would beat him eventually.

One soldier ran up a stairs to the walls with a big bag in hand, once he was he was in a suitable position he dropped the contents of the bag on the enemy it was burning coal. The Tribunal was scattered in the spot were the coal was dropped and this gave the archers a chance to fire in areas were troops were now focused.

The coal gave Ershedro an idea. He got some spell casters and ran over the mountain next to Balmora and found the Orcs and Argonians that had constructed catapults in case of an assault, they were getting ready to launch boulders or large chunks of rock that used to be part of buildings.

"Before you launch the boulders, let these spell casters set the rocks on fire, if you need something to use to help ignite them theirs plenty of spoilt alcohol in this box." Said Ershedro to an Orc, while dropping the box at the Orcs feet.

"No alcohol is spoilt, but desperate times call for desperate measures." Said the Orc. They tried his idea, the alcohol wasn't needed thankfully.

Turv watched as a flaming boulder flew through the sky from over the hills and crashed into a big clump of the troops and then rolled over some more. The fire exploded everywhere and hit men that were near the boulder.

"Turv take some men and check that out." Shouted Gratis. Turv nodded and told some men to follow him. Just then a dozen more boulders flew through the sky and landed on more men.

"If we don't take them out then we might lose." Said Astelan to no one in specific, he ran after Turv to give him a hand.

Sabre stopped firing the regular arrows, he pulled out a special arrow, and he aimed it at Gratis and fired. The arrow flew through the air and Gratis saw it coming, but he couldn't stop it. The arrow flew into Gratis's chest and knocked him off the boulder, it also activated its enchantment, a massive ball of thunder exploded from the arrow. When the electric explosion had ended people could see a perfect circle of burn surrounding Gratis, any other men that had been hit were blown far away.

Sabre couldn't contain his excitement and he shouted a victorious roar. But his victory was stolen as Gratis suddenly shot back up off his back and then slowly stood up.

"What a load of bullshit! How does someone survive that! That arrow was designed to kill Vivec!" Shouted Sabre.

Turv ran in with men behind him, he charged at the catapults. The Argonians spotted him coming and shot their arrows and the spell casters shot their fiery magicka that was dealing so much damage to the enemy flanks. Many of the enemy fell but enough got through to have a little battle of their own.

Turv swung his sword and sliced several men in the chest. Suddenly he saw a figure rush at him, it was Ershedro. Ershedro blew Turv right off his feet and into a bunch of men.

Turv got up and the two clashed. Ershedro hammered down his longs but Turv was able to defend every attack and counter attack. A black clad Astelan ran at the enemy and flew through the sky with a leg extended; he cracked one man in the chest and knocked him down. He then proceeded to prove his ability and started throwing his legs into the sky and smash men in the face and the ones that didn't fall he down only earned the right to see more of Astelan's skill as he swung down and tripped them over. Once a dozen men or so were down he drew his blade and started stabbing.

A Large Orc grabbed him from behind and threw him a few feet through the air. He rolled across the floor a little but got up in time to defend himself against and kill several attackers rushing in his direction.

He then started throwing ebony darts; men were hit in the neck and face. They quickly fell but helmets protected a few and they battled on. One imperial soldier threw a bottle of alcohol at a bunch of tribunal soldiers, a nearby spell caster caught on to his idea and shot a fire spell in at the alcohol drenched troops, they erupted into flames and floundered about for a moment before dieing.

Turv swung his long sword at Ershedro but his attack was in vain. He kicked some dirt at Ershedro and by natural reaction Ershedro knocked it away and in his moment of vulnerability Turv swiped at his chest, it tore through Ershedro's armour and skin, Ershedro gave a roar before Turv kicked him into one of the catapults. Ershedro fell amongst the wood and steel and he did not get back up.

All this time the catapults continued to fire thanks to several brave men who put the battle before their own lives.

"What is taking so long?" Thought Gratis to himself as he watched another boulder crash into his men. He noticed that the ratio of Imperial soldiers to Tribunal soldiers was shifting in his favour. But Sabre was still slicing down his men and as long as he was up there they wouldn't take the walls.

Gratis grabbed a silver longbow from a nearby soldier and aimed at Sabre, he fired but missed. He did hit an Imperial soldier so the shot was not entirely in vain.

"Enough is enough! Get the explosives in there and destroy the walls." He shouted. Men ran in with magical bombs while other troops covered them with large shields.

One of the bombs went off early when a ladder landed on the holder and crushed him to death. Men all around were blown to bits.

"If you want a job done right do it yourself!" shouted a cocky Kedar who was suddenly beside Gratis.

"True, but I'm not going to blow myself to bits like those stupid bombers, they think they'll be able to run from them but they'll have no chance. Once the wall goes we run in spread the order." Responded Gratis. Kedar did as he was told.

Vjad started to run through the lines and made his way to the wall, as he got near the walls they blew to bits.

"Sabre!" he shouted before running up the remainder of the walls. He could see Sabre; he was knocked out and was face down in the water but in one piece.

As Tribunal troops were about to trample Sabre, Vjad jumped from the walls and landed on the enemy, knocking several to the floor. He jumped up and started swinging his Daedric war axe desperately, men that got too close lost arms and legs and the really unlucky ones lost their heads. Troops didn't stop rushing him but they all were knocked back, he couldn't stop the men that ran into the city that went in a distance from him.

Troops running into the city were suddenly bombarded by exploding arrows from straight above. Gratis looked up and spotted the traitor, Shardae and several others flying above the battlefield firing down arrows. The explosion they had wasn't nearly as large as the one that Sabre had fired but they still took out three or four troops an arrow.

Crossbowmen spotted the airborne attackers and fired back, but it turned out that firing upwards is rather difficult, between the arrows being sent off course by the wind and the sun shining in their eyes.

Sparhawk had been hiding amongst the troops until now, he remembered right before Ryan and Vvardenfell had left Ryan came to him,

A few weeks ago &&&&&&

"Hey Sparhawk." Said Ryan, getting the new soldiers attention.

"Yes Ryan?" asked Sparhawk, wondering why Ryan wanted to speak to him.

"I've noticed you on the battlefield and heard a story or two about you." He said.

"You've heard stories about me?" he asked.

"Yeah, and it's clear you got skill far beyond the average soldier. I've also noticed your very rare style of fighting." Said Ryan, this resulted in Sparhawk looking at his swords proudly.

"I wanted to give you these…" Said Ryan presenting Kedar with two slightly short swords, they were smooth and curved slightly, they were beautifully made and very graceful looking "…these were given to me years ago by my old master. They were forged by great High Elves of an age long past. They can cut any armour and destroy any daedra lord. I would use them but I prefer one sword." Said Ryan handing the swords to Sparhawk.

Sparhawk moved them around and gave them a swing, then started striking at invisible enemies. They were marvellous weapons; as light as a feather yet could clearly cleave a man in two.

Back in the present&&&&&&

Sparhawk watched as men ran in his direction, some ran onto spears and some broke through. Sparhawk suddenly dashed forward and exploded into the enemy, slicing men down one by one, swinging deadly arcs that killed several men. Sparhawk wasn't the pleasant fellow his friends had come to like, he was a raging demon, men lost their lives and limbs. He forced his way through the enemy lines until he made his way to Vjad.

"Sparhawk, get Sabre out of here!" shouted Vjad as he defended himself against another dozen attackers. The bodies were mounting up and forming small hills outside the city. Sparhawk grabbed Sabre and pulled him out of the water. Sabre gave a cough that let out a lot of water but only regained consciousness for a second. Sparhawk forced a healing potion down the Knight's throat and this gave Sabre the strength to get up.

"Thank you friend." Said Sabre before running over by Vjad to search the water for his Ebony Broadsword. He found and stood beside Vjad, the two prepared for the next wave of enemy troops. Sparhawk ran up beside them and the three got ready for the soldiers running at them.

Back over the hills Turv left Astelan to take over dismantling the catapults as very few of the enemy was left.

As Turv left Ershedro got up, as he got up pain shot through his chest.

"Damn that prick." He said, slipping a healing potion out of his pocket. He drank it quickly and worked his leg out of some wood it was stuck in.

"Don't bother you Imperial dog, I'll kill you anyway." Laughed Astelan.

"Let's go you, you're nothing but a lapdog to the Tribunal." Said Ershedro as he drew his longs.

The two ran at each other and clashed, Ershedro started to hammer blows down on Astelan. Astelan used his dagger to defend himself but Ershedro knocked it out of his hand. It flew through the air and landed between the two combatants. Astelan jumped for it but Ershedro kicked it away and it fell over a slope.

Astelan jumped away from Ershedro but Ershedro wasn't going to let Astelan escape so he ran after him. As Ershedro ran Astelan blasted a fire spell at his opponent. Ershedro was blown off his feet. He quickly got back up and started dodging the fire spells. After a dozen spells had been effectively dodged Astelan stopped.

"You need to spend more time practicing your magicka!" taunted Ershedro.

"I didn't miss." Said Astelan pointing behind Ershedro. Ershedro went against his instinct and looked back. The catapults were burning to the ground. He turned around to face Astelan but all he saw was Astelan's foot coming at his face. Astelan's flying kick hit dead on target and Ershedro was blown to the floor.

Ershedro scrambled up and saw Astelan jumping at him again, this time he swung his long and it cracked against Astelan's shoulder. Astelan landed on the floor and covered his wound with his hand. Ershedro stood above him.

"You have fought well my opponent, but now it ends." Said Ershedro raising his longs.

Astelan was subtly moving a hand to his boot were he was reaching for a hidden dagger. As the long dropped to Astelan's head he flicked out the dagger and defended himself before sprinting away from Ershedro. Ershedro again gave chase but this time Astelan had run into a corner. Ershedro closed in and jumped at his foe. Astelan used up the last of his Magicka to blast Ershedro. Ershedro was hit in the chest by the fiery spell and he fell backwards. Astelan ran forward and jumped onto Ershedro's chest and kicked into Ershedro's chest to push himself off.

Ershedro fell to the floor again but again got up. He threw a long to the left of Astelan who jumped to the right, just as Ershedro expected. Ershedro dashed to the right and cracked the long down on Astelan. Astelan fell down, defeated. Ershedro kicked him down a hill and Astelan rolled down into some bushes.

Ershedro turned around and found the remaining Tribunal troops that he had forgotten about during his fight with Astelan. Even worse still one of them had his other long.

Ershedro looked at the odds. He was outnumbered about forty to one, he was fighting one handed when he was used to two handed combat and the enemy had half of his advantage in combat.

"In the name of the Tribunal, you are under arrest." Said a soldier.

"You'll need to take me in chains." He said as he jumped at the enemy.

Meanwhile Vjad, Sabre and Sparhawk were smashing and slicing every enemy that came near them. A dozen troops running at them were stricken when Shardae suddenly jumped in front of them and started swinging wildly, the ones that were hit by her fell down while the others scampered away. She ran over to the others.

"How does the situation look?" she asked.

"Well…" said Sabre as he looked around.

"…We've lost." He said. Several tied-up soldiers were pushed towards the group. They were hopelessly surrounded, Balmora was overflowing with Tribunal soldiers and there was less then forty for the Empire.

"Drop your weapons and your lives will be spared." Said Gratis who made himself visible.

"We can count on Ershedro." Sabre whispered to Vjad. But just then a bloody Ershedro was dragged into the circle by a few soldiers.

"I guess you spoke to soon." Vjad whispered back.

"We're not defeated yet Gratis!" shouted Shardae.

"It would seem that you are, I would regret killing fine warriors and tacticians but if you force me to do so I will." Said Gratis. But suddenly a volley of exploding arrows crashed into a cluster of Tribunal soldiers.

The Tribunal forces turned to the direction from which the arrows came. Gratis spotted the current chieftain of Thirsk Jaros and his Nords, standing along side Jaros was Aoku.

"I told you we weren't beaten yet." Said Shardae to Vjad.

"Yes yes, very smart." Said Vjad. The group took up their weapons and started fighting there way through the enemy until they were behind the enemy. They sat down for a second but then Sabre jumped up.

"I'll be back in a second." He ran into the crowd and emerged with Ershedro thrown over his back and his longs hanging out his sleeves. He threw Ershedro down and the group took a minute to get their breath. Then from over the hills came Aoku and a redguard.

"Aoku, where have you been?" asked Vjad.

"I went to Caldera to get help, I told Shardae to tell you." She replied.

"Thanks for telling us." Joked Sparhawk. Aoku started to heal the group.

"This is Isude." Said Aoku to the group, the redguard gave a little wave.

"I was hired to come and protect a boy fighting with Jaros but I just found out that he got scared and ran home so the way I see it I might as well fight with you guys." Said the newcomer.

"Welcome to the group." Said a slightly dazed Ershedro. The surviving soldiers that had been tied up were ready to fight again and once everyone was healed they ran back into the fight.

The remaining troops for the tribunal were still vast in numbers but most of them were poorly trained and equipped peasants that hoped to earn an extra few gold pieces.

They were no match for the well-equipped and powerful Nords that were slicing them with their powerful axes and crushing them with their powerful hammers.

Of course there was still the problem of the vast number of tribunal soldiers, they were swarming around the city and picking off small groups of soldiers that were straying from the bulk of the Nord army.

Vjad, Sparhawk, Ershedro, Shardae, Isude and Sabre were after making their way to the upper class homes where they had found tribunal troops looting the homes. The group quickly started to kill off the poorly trained enemy soldiers.

After a while of fighting Sabre started to notice that torches were being thrown at the homes, the tribunal was trying to burn the city to the ground…again.

Sabre ran on the roof of a house and spotted the soldiers that were throwing torches, he took out his bow and started to fire at them, he killed a few but then realised that he was out of arrows.

He jumped off the roof and chased down some archers, which after killing them provided plenty of arrows that allowed him to riddle enemies with arrows.

While he was shooting he spotted a problem, Gratis was smashing Nords aside like toys. Sabre looked at the mace that Gratis used, there was something familiar about it, it's not quite Daedric design, it's enchantment that allowed him to smash enemy troops across battlefields and then Sabre remembered, it was the mace of Adamar The Destroyer. A deadly warlord from an age long ago, bur Adamar was no ordinary warlord, Adamar was older and more powerful then any Daedra and in his age he was the Doguth Ur, but he was much more successful, he forged the two most deadly weapons in existence, his mace and his sword. The mace gave the wielder more strength then the gods which clearly allowed him to crush a dozen men like insects, the sword was claimed to be able give the wielder a dark power, sadly Sabre's knowledge of the weapons ended there.

Isude joined Sabre on the rooftop and together they started to fire upon the enemy.

"Aim for the better equipped ones, they have higher rank!" said Sabre.

"Don't worry, I know." Replied Isude, shooting one of the last remaining Ordinators in the chest.

"There are still some explosives outside the city! We should aim for them and hope to do some damage to the rear flanks!" said Sabre. Isude nodded and took aim, he took several seconds to get the shot right but once he fired it hit dead on and the several black spheres blew up, taking three dozen men with them, it also left a huge crater which gave Isude an idea.

"Sabre, if we can force the enemy into that crater we could hit them very easily. But forcing them back is the hard part."

"You'd think so wouldn't you?" proclaimed Sabre before shouting to Vjad the others.

"Force the enemy into that crater!" he shouted. Vjad, Ershedro and Sparhawk ran to the enemy front and started smashing and slicing with all their might to try and convince them to run. Shardae ran onto the roof and joined the other two in shooting arrows.

Jaros was still with the bulk of his men; he was striking down soldiers with his faithful Stalhrim axe. He quickly dispatched enemy troops, he did feel a little guilty that he was defeating these worms that had little skill compared to him but then he remembered that he's on the defenders side of the battle.

He led his men through the centre of the city and then back to one side, the two factions were now positioned at either side of the river Odai. Both sides preparing to suddenly rush the opposition.

Gevaden: That's part one of the Battle for Balmora, I hope you liked it, I was going to have this full battle and the battle at Mournhold as one chapter but then I realised that it would be too long, then I found that this chapter was getting long so I'll post it in several pieces.

As always I'd like to know who your favourite character is and why, and who your least favourite character is and why…just so I can develop new interesting characters.

**Any others questions or comments would be appreciated. **


	12. Chapter 11end of the beginning & beginni...

Gevaden: Well I'm back and right in the middle of chaos and anarchy! When we last left our dynamic comrades there was more fighting going on then…something with a lot of fighting or something like that! But before letting you know how the battle at Balmora ends I'll pull you over to Mournhold where Sotha Sil and Ryan have entered the domain of Almalexia to help her and the last of Her Hands.

Ryan looked around; there was four of Her Hands left. That would normally be a concern that he only has four soldiers to back him up then he remembered that these guys were no normal soldiers.

"Where is the enemy?" asked Ryan to nobody in particular.

"They have already taken the majority of the Temple, this room is all that remains of ours, if we can hold them off for long enough and kill enough of their soldiers as they squeeze through those doors we might be able to leave and reclaim the entire city." Replied one of Her Hands.

"I see." Said Ryan calmly. Suddenly the sound of feet marching could be heard outside the doors. Then a large crashing sound against the doors, they were using some kind of ramming device to open the doors.

The doors burst open and the Imperial Guard rushed in, flooding the room like a red ocean.

Meanwhile back in Vivec Palace Vivec spoke with The Holy One.

"Tell me, what do you foresee?" asked Vivec, rubbing his head with a hand.

"Why do you ask, Can you not foresee the result yourself?" asked The Holy One.

"It would seem that the events of the present leave my body and mind more drained then I could have expected." Said Vivec taking a deep breathe.

"Well, I foresee a victory on both fronts." Said The Holy One. Vivec could tell that The Holy One wasn't telling him something, but his current condition was all he cared about at the moment.

"You should get some rest, you shall need your energy soon, I can tell. I shall leave you and return tomorrow." Said The Hoy One as he walked to the door.

Vivec took the advice, it was true that he needed the rest, this war had seen many restless nights for Vivec, there was no time for a god to rest while his people bled. But now would be an exception.

Back in Mournhold Ryan drew his sword and started to slice down the Royal Guard that were running at him, none of them recognised him as he was adorned in the armour of Her Hands although he wasn't using their scimitar, he brandished an Enchanted Daedric Claymore that horribly shocked his opponents.

Ryan could see that Sotha Sil had summoned and sword of his own and was now floating around the room killing men with no remorse. Almalexia was casting her spells and killing dozens of men as they attempted to get into the room.

Everything was going well until the first of Her Hands was killed, it seemed that after that more and more of the enemy was able to get into the room.

To be honest Ryan wasn't fighting to his maximum ability but would you expect him to?

It seemed that the Royal Guard was going to overflow into the room and defeat them but then Sotha Sil summoned several Daedra to their aid. There was anarchy in the room, there was magicka and swords flying everywhere and everything the room was getting cramped.

"Time to go to work." Said Ryan as he slipped out the Amulet of Shadows. Suddenly he was just about invisible. He slipped around the room and sliced the throat of one of Her Hands. He looked around to see if he had attracted any attention, his focus was mainly on Sotha Sil but he seemed oblivious to Ryan's plan.

"This is not going to be a long battle." Said Ryan as Sotha Sil cast a powerful spell that knocked all of the Royal Guard to one end of the room.

Ryan walked up next to Sotha Sil.

"They shall rush us again in a moment be ready." Said Sotha Sil with his summoned sword in hand.

"They won't kill you." Replied Ryan.

"And how do you know that?" asked Sotha.

"Isn't it obvious? I will." Said Ryan as he drove his sword straight through Sotha Sil's stomach, Sotha Sil bent over slightly and Ryan pulled out the sword and then sliced it through Sotha Sil's neck. The head fell to the floor. Almalexia gave a scream and everyone looked around in confusion. Ryan threw his sword at Almalexia and it went through her chest. Ryan ran over but the two remaining members of Her Hands intervened. They did not see the daggers that Ryan had hidden up his sleeves, they slid down and Ryan sliced at their necks, the two grabbed their wounds and fell to their knees. Ryan kicked them over and gave each of them a stab in the heart. Ryan walked over to Almalexia who was crying at the sight of her own blood. Ryan held up his hands and let them lazily point out at the goddess.

"They call you the lady of mercy. Isn't it ironic that you shall not be shown mercy." Said Ryan, then he cast his spell. Lightning shot from his fingers and ran all over the body of Almalexia. His spell was unique in the way that it was not a ball that exploded, his spell it shot out in a continuous line that forked out and surrounded her body in a web of lightning. The spell continued to shock the goddess until she collapsed as a smoking shell that was once a goddess. Ryan walked over to the whimpering, smoking goddess and pulled his sword from her chest. He took off his helmet and through it across the room. His long blonde hair flew down around his neck and the Royal Guard recognised him.

"Its Ryan, three cheers for our champion!" shouted one guard. This was followed by three cheers as Ryan held up his sword in one hand and the head of Sotha Sil in the other hand.

Ryan took a rope from a soldier and tied up Almalexia by the hands, he dragged her smoking carapace to the throne room, to Uriel Septim.

"I have brought you a living Goddess, her spirit broken. I have brought you the head of Sotha Sil, his neck broken." Said Ryan with a laugh as he threw the head at Uriel's feet.

Even in his dilapidated state of health the king got up to congratulate Ryan on this.

"Ryan, the champion of the Empire, the master of lightning, the son of Ithlandir and now the god killer! For this, which is surely the beginning of the end for the Tribunal I call for a celebration. Bring in the wine!" shouted the king proudly before bursting into a fit of now routine coughing.

Beautiful maidens brought in wine and powerful men lifted in tables, which would be soon covered with fine food.

Ryan took the symbol of Sotha Sil from his neck and threw it to a soldier so he could pawn it. Ryan was worried about his love Vvardenfell but even he could not enjoy this occasion.

"Before the real entertainment starts, I the king, have a few gifts to bestow upon Ryan for what he has done this day." Said the king. He ushered some people into the room, each one carrying a piece of armour, bar one who had a sword.

"Do you recognise this gear Ryan?" asked the king. Ryan nodded, he was speechless.

"For those of you who do not recognise it, this is the armour of Ryan's patron, Horus The Magnificent, the most famous master of lightning. Ryan, I present you with his actual equipment and I announce that Ryan is the official Master of Lightning, for truly there is nobody with such a grasp of your _shocking _abilities." Proclaimed the king, this earned a laugh and a cheer.

"But that is not all, bring in the next gift." Said the king. Ryan turned to the door and spotted two women carrying giant white wings, they were covering someone or something. They walked up to Ryan and moved the wings aside, it was Vvardenfell. Ryan was quick to embrace her and place a kiss on her lips.

"But how?" asked Ryan to Vvardenfell who was draped in beautiful white robes with golden lining.

"An inside man got me out of Vivec earlier today, he was aided by someone who said you had done him a favour in the arena canton earlier." She replied. Ryan knew it must have been Eno Hlaalu.

"Ryan if I can have your attention one more time, there is one thing you must do." Said the King, presenting Ryan with the sword of Horus the Magnificent.

"Do you have a soul gem to but into the sword?" asked the king. Ryan checked his pockets.

"I do actually." Replied Ryan.

"I hope it's a powerful one." Said the king.

"It's the most powerful." Said Ryan taking out the soul gem that contained the soul of Selione. The king took the sword and the gem and combined the two, the sword suddenly came alive with lightning and the king held the sword so that the hilt was aimed at Ryan, and Ryan took the sword. Everyone applauded.

"Now Ryan, go put on your knew armour!" said the king, everyone started clapping and shouting. Ryan left to change while everyone else started to eat and drink.

When Ryan returned he was adorned with the armour of Horus The Magnificent, everyone applauded again. The armour was white and decorative but it had many small dents and scratches, a result of the many battles it had seen. The armour was heavy and shone with the Enchantment that flowed through it. It had a white cloak that hung down at Ryan's feet. There was gold on the lining and the decoration was golden. On each plate of the chest piece it depicted Horus fighting one of two gods, the two that Ryan had defeated today. As you can guess Horus wasn't a Tribunal fan either.

Ryan walked over to his seat that was next to Vvardenfell. He was also next to the king whom was at the head of the table. The celebrations went on deep into the night until Vvardenfell tried to get the attention of a sleeping King Uriel but when she shook his shoulder and he didn't react she got worried. She ran over to Ryan who had by now walked over to some old friends he hadn't seen since he was a wee nipper.

"Ryan I think we have a problem." She said.

"What's the problem, by the way did I tell you that those robes look like my new armour?" asked Ryan, we'll say he was a little drunk.

"Yes you did…a dozen times actually. But I think something is wrong with the king." She said. This seemed to sober Ryan up a bit. He walked over to the king and tried waking the king. When his attempts were in vain he placed a finger under the king's nose to see if he could feel him breathe…he was dead. Ryan told his findings to a Royal Guard who told Ryan to announce it to the room. The guard got the attention of the room and gave Ryan the floor before wiping a tear from his eye.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, King Uriel Septim has passed away." He said before bowing his head, the room was suddenly very silent. People removed their hats and put down their drinks. Some started to weep.

After Ryan aided on lifting Uriel into his room Ryan and Vvardenfell went to their room.

Ryan collapsed onto the bed and Vvardenfell fell next to him but they didn't get a moments rest, as there was a knocking on the door. Ryan opened the door to find an old man in grey robes with a long grey beard.

"Marius, how are you?" asked Ryan to the old wise man.

"Not good, we have little time. We must leave soon." Said the old man.

"I'm in no condition to travel." Said Ryan before giving a little hiccup.

"It's true, he's drunk." Said Vvardenfell, making herself visible at the door. The old man gave Ryan a smack on the head with his staff.

"You're not drunk anymore." Said Marius. Ryan took a second.

"Hey, I'm not drunk anymore. That's rather impressive actually." Replied Ryan.

"Are you drunk?" asked Marius to Vvardenfell with his staff raised. Vvardenfell opened her eyes wide, covered the spot he was going to strike with her hands and shook her head.

"It's true only I got pissed tonight." Said Ryan.

"That matters not we must leave, gather your things." Said Marius.

"Where are we going?" asked Ryan.

"Caldera." Responded the old man. Ryan and Vvardenfell packed the clothes and armour they had arrived in and they were transported to Caldera.

They were in Ryan's house.

"Where is that staff I gave you?" asked Marius.

"The staff of Magnus, over there." Said Ryan, pointing to what was once the counter of the clothes store this house was before Ryan turned the place into a house. Marius picked up the staff and the three made their way to Balmora.

When they arrived it was pitch black bar a few torches that lit up the angry faces of the warriors that lined the streets waiting to pounce at each other.

The three walked along the water of the river Odai and walked into the centre of the city.

The three floated up until they were level with the rest of the city. Marius searched the crowds until he eventually spotted Gratis.

"Gratis, get over here." He said quickly, ushering him over with his staff. Gratis pushed men aside and walked onto the air next to Marius, Ryan and Vvardenfell.

"You two come with me, and you my lady shall find some of your friends and mingle for awhile." Said Marius. He led Ryan and Gratis into a house on the Tribunal side of the village. Soldiers moved aside for the three quickly.

Vvardenfell walked over to the Imperial side of the village and found the group, they made their way to the back of the city and started to chat.

"So Vvardenfell, you're looking good. Where have you two been for the last few weeks? There is no way you got those robes in the wilderness." Asked Vjad.

Vvardenfell spent the next few hours telling them everything, the Ordinator death squads, Sotha Sil's deal with Ryan, and then everything up to the point in which they were at.

"Let me get one thing straight, Ryan killed two gods, right." Asked Ershedro.

"Wrong, he killed one and broke the spirit of another." She said.

"Okay." He said. The next few hours were spent by Ershedro telling Vvardenfell what had happened, with a few interruptions from Sabre and Shardae to say what actually happened.

"I just realised it's nearly bright, those three have been in there for the whole night what's going on?" asked Vjad.

"I've no idea." Replied Vvardenfell after everyone looked to her for a reason.

Back in Mournhold….

Moonstar made his way into the temple; it was empty now, bar a child that didn't care about the member of Her Hands that was walking around the temple.

Moonstar made his way Almalexia's domain.

"I have failed." He said to himself as he saw the blood-splattered room with bodies everywhere. He had some small sense of hope when he didn't spot Almalexia's body but that hope was destroyed when he found her scent coming from a line of blood against a wall. He raised a finger to blood on the wall; the blood was still warm, while all the other bodies were stone cold.

He dropped to a knee.

"I have failed my mother…" he said before beginning to weep. Suddenly an urge to taste her blood came over him, he couldn't fight it. It tasted like liquid fire, as his body consumed the blood a strange feeling came over him…a new power.

He could smell something, something far away…not something but someone. He had to find this person, he didn't know why but he had to. Perhaps this would lead to his revenge.

He got up and ran.

Back in Ebonheart…

Zebeyna sat in her bed, resting nicely. But her rest was interrupted by the sound of plates crashing around. Then there was silence for a while. And then Idius walked in with his wife, but they didn't seem to really walk in as it was. She looked with a curious look at them, they held their arms up in an odd way and there legs were very loose. Their heads were tilted and their eyes blank of emotion or consciousness. Then she realised something, they looked like strings held them up…as if they were puppets.

She tried to push herself away from them as they came closer but she just pressed against the wall. They got close and grabbed her arms, holding her in place.

She struggled to move but it was like trying to move from steel that held her in place. From the lack of heat in their hands she guessed that they were dead.

And then she heard footsteps, a figure slowly entered the room, his skin looked more like coal that was cracked all over, it had red lines running through it. She couldn't see much more of his flesh if it could be called that, he was draped in rags bar an odd black steel chest piece that was made out of seemly two plates, he also had steel braces and steel boots of similar design. Zebeyna had never seen such armour or such a horrible creature but she didn't need to guess who it was…Darth Vader…(only joking)

"Zebeyna. How are you?" he asked the figure. His words separated by deep breaths that suggested in was in great pain.

"Why are you here, why won't you leave me alone?" she asked, half screaming.

"Why? WHY YOU ASK? Look at me, I am a shell of my former greatness, never shall I wield a sword against a dozen foes, never shall I leap across the buildings of Vivec. But I am not defeated just yet, and you will help me Zebeyna." Said the burnt Puppet Master.

"What do you want?" She asked, still struggling against the iron grip of the married couple that held her.

"As you've guessed I'm sure I still have a powerful grasp over Magicka, perhaps I am more powerful then before. Either way you are going to obtain several things which I will use to restore my body to it's old state." He said.

"And if I refuse?" she asked.

"If you refuse I'll bring you back to my lair, let my minions do what they want with you for a fortnight before bringing you to your home and use my manipulative power to have your family kill each other in front of you, then I'll take your body as my own while you watch everything I do from inside a crystal in one of my staffs." He said slowly. He seemed to do everything slowly in his current state.

She gulped.

"What do I need to do?" she asked.

"I need several things, you will get them for me and I will use them to restore my body to a perfect state. If you do these for me I will release you and I will never go near you, and when the lands have fallen you and your family will be spared."

"So do we have a deal?" he asked. But before he could answer a werewolf burst into the house and ran into the room.

"What is this?" asked The Puppet Master. The werewolf quickly swiped at him but hit thin air as the Puppet Master disappeared. The two bodies leapt at the werewolf but it smashed them against the floor with its powerful claws. The bodies remained motionless. The werewolf changed back to its regular state.

"Who are you?" asked Zebeyna.

"I am Moonstar, and you?" he asked.

"Zebeyna. Thank you for saving me." She replied.

"Why was he after you." He asked.

"I caused a little damage to him a few days ago. Now he wants me to collect some things so that he can restore his body." She replied.

"I don't know why I was drawn to you, but I will a aid you in collecting these things so that your enemy shall not bother people anymore. Perhaps this trip will aid me in a way." He said.

"Well we have no idea what the items he needs are." She said with a sigh.

"Could this list be what he needs?" asked Moonstar, staring at a piece of paper he had just picked up from the floor where The Puppet Master had been a moment ago.

Zebeyna looked at the list.

"It very well could be." She said.

"Well we have one already." Said Moonstar.

"Which one is that?" she asked.

"The Ring Of The Moon. It allows me to become a werewolf whenever I please." Said Moonstar showing her the ring on his hand.

"Why would he need that?" asked Zebeyna.

"I don't know but I have a feeling we'll know soon enough." He replied. The two made for the door. They left the city to start their search for various artefacts and magical things.

Back in Balmora…

"It's nearly dark. They've been in there for over twelve hours." Said Ershedro, bouncing his head from one side to another in a failing attempt to provide some tiny amount of amusement.

"Looks like the soldiers are getting restless." Said Sabre looking at the factions.

Inside the house…

"So we are agreed." Said Marius looking at the two warriors who sat at opposite sides of a table.

"I agree." Said Ryan.

"I also agree." Added Gratis.

"Then shall we announce the news to the soldiers?" asked Marius.

"Fine." Said the two at the same time.

"Lets go then." Said the old man with a big smile on his face.

Outside people watched as the door opened and the three people came out.

"People who have come to take over the town and people who have been here defending it. After much discussion between the three of us, the battle is over." Said Marius. This was followed by a cheer.

"And so is the war." Added the old man. The city fell silent; all that could be heard was people at the back whispering to people further away the news. After a moment when the news had set in the city was in an uproar.

"Hold on, how are we going to convince the leaders to end the war?" shouted a random soldier. This was followed by a bunch of people shouting for an answer to that.

"Most of you will know that King Uriel Septim passed away very recently, and by the looks of things the man to replace him will be taking me as his advisor and I've already told him of my plans here, he is in full support. As for Vivec, the three of us are going to tell him now, those who wish to come are welcome." Said the old man leaning on his staff for strength.

"But we have something to reveal. Ryan, Gratis show them what I'm talking about." Said the old man. Ryan removed his white helmet and Gratis removed his Royal Guard helmet. People looked on in shock.

Vvardenfell looked on in surprise.

"Ryan and Gratis are identical twins?" she said to the others, hoping one of them would correct her.

"That's right." Said Vjad as if he had already known.

"You say it as if you already knew." Said Sabre with an eyebrow raised.

"That's because I did know." He responded.

"Why didn't you tell us." Asked Ershedro.

"You never asked." Replied Vjad.

Vvardenfell looked at the two, they looked exactly alike the only difference was that Gratis's hair was tied back while's Ryan's had been let down.

"Now to Vivec!" shouted Gratis, holding a sword up high.

"Where is your Mace?" asked Astelan, who had woken up and joined the troops several hours ago.

"I have it, but not for long this weapon corrupts the wielder, it is dangerous. So dangerous it could turn brothers against each other. I shall take it and the sword counterpart I left with Ryan and I shall place them both in a secret location." Said Marius.

The Holy One watched out towards the entrance to the city from outside Vivec's palace. He could see the remainders of the two armies coming at the city. He entered the Palace and found Vivec in an extremely bad state.

"Lord Vivec, the army is returning, I guess we've won." He said.

"No, we could not have won, something is very wrong. I feel like someone has pulled an organ from my body with their bare hand. Something dreadful has happened since yesterday." Said Vivec, giving a slight moan.

"Are you okay my god?" asked The Holy One.

"Can I trust you with a secret?" asked Vivec.

"Of course you can, I have been your loyal advisor since the dawning of your great empire." Replied The Holy One.

"I think I'm losing my divine power, or at least they are fading. Are you sure we won in Mournhold?" asked Vivec, having trouble standing at this point.

"Actually we did not, I thought it was best to hide this from you until now…but Marius The Ancient and I bring you a gift." Said the Holy One.

"Marius? Why Marius? What gift can that man give me?" said Vivec as before Marius, Ryan and Gratis entered the palace. Vivec mustered all his strength and stood up straight.

"What have we here?" asked Vivec.

"Peace." Said The Holy One. Vivec looked at his advisor in confusion.

"Your advisor and I have been contact over the past two months and now we think we have achieved peace." Said Marius The Ancient.

"Gratis, is this true?" asked Vivec to his military leader and champion.

"I have heard their plan, and I agree. Peace can be achieved." Responded Gratis.

"I shall hear you out." Said Vivec.

They had been in the palace for two hours by now.

The people were getting angry and were starting to think they had a repeat of the events in the house but before people got too agitated the religious and military leaders emerged. Vivec stood at the front and announced to the people.

"The Coalition Of Morrowind that includes the five of us have been talking. We have peace!" the population gave a roar of approval and there were celebrations over the next twenty-four hours. But for the peace to work there needed to be a huge shift in power of many of the Guilds and the groups.

Vivec and Marius combined their efforts and started giving orders to Gratis and Ryan to start taking over everything. Ryan quickly rose through the remaining ranks in house Hlaalu and became the Grandmaster, he did the same thing with the Mages Guild and several factions. Gratis took leadership in the Fighters Guild, in the Imperial Legion, The Imperial Cult, and several others.

This caused some trouble as many people believed that giving The Coalition all the power was going to cause corruption but if it kept peace then they were willing to stay quiet on the matter.

There was peace for weeks and the damaged cites started to get back into shape.

As for Zebeyna and Moonstar whom had not heard the news they spent the next two months gathering the various things on the list in an attempt to stop The Puppet Master. They had every single item on the list, every time they were close to getting one they were attacked by The Puppet Master's minions but every time they escaped with the items safely.

The two sat around a campfire celebrating after finding the last item, a robe that healed the wearer.

"We've done it Moonstar, we've done it!" said Zebeyna.

"Indeed we have!" said Moonstar looking at the bag at his feet that contained the items, bar the ring on his finger.

Zebeyna looked at a tattoo on her hand, it was the insignia of The Puppet Master, it had appeared the day she met Moonstar, she had no idea of what it did but it irritated her.

"Hold on." Said Moonstar, getting to his feet and drawing his Scimitar.

"What's wrong?" asked Zebeyna, even though she had a good guess.

"The Puppet Masters goons are about." He replied, giving a little snarl. Moments later the two were defending themselves from what seemed like dozens of the creatures.

Moonstar had the bag in one hand and was defending himself with his sword in the other hand. Zebeyna was defending herself too but then she spotted The Puppet Master. He had changed his outfit slightly. He was know wearing similar black steel all over his body, the armour was a thin light black armour that was half covered by a heavier steel. The only part of him that was visible was from his nose up, he had a circle of dark steel around his lower face and neck. He also had a dark hood on which made it even harder hard to see him.

Suddenly his eyes turned into an odd yellow colour, Zebeyna felt the tattoo on her hand get warm, and then it got warmer and warmer until it was hot. It got painfully hot. Zebeyna couldn't take the pain and she fell to her knees.

The Puppet Master walked over to her and grabbed her around the neck; he lifted her up and held her so she was completely defenceless and stuck.

"Moonstar, stop your defence!" shouted The Puppet Master. Moonstar looked in his direction and he saw Zebeyna.

"Don't you dare kill her!" shouted Moonstar, the two had gotten very friendly over the two months.

"I won't if you hand over the artefacts." Said The Puppet Master. Moonstar thought about it, it was risky but he thought he might be able to defeat The Puppet Master even after he had restored his body, so he threw the bag over. It landed at The Puppet Master's feet.

"And the ring." Said The Puppet Master. Moonstar sighed at the loss of the ring he had grown attached to. But nonetheless he handed it over. He dropped his head in shame. When he looked up again he and Zebeyna were alone, the artefacts gone.

"I have failed again." Said Moonstar.

"We shall still defeat him, we shall hunt him down and kill him! Now stop feeling bad for yourself and help me kill that guy!" shouted Zebeyna. Moonstar clenched his fists and nodded.

Meanwhile there was peace in the rest of Morrowind. Everything was working out and things were getting back to a state of normal, because the war was over.

But the peace was not to last.

**Gevaden: Come on you didn't think I'd end it like that did you, the war shall start again! The real war is just starting!**

P.S. I recently messed up my file for Morrowind but I can't be pissed in starting a new game or anything. I heard that if you kill Vivec and steal the Unique Dwemer Artefact you can have somebody turn it into Wraithguard, does anybody know who this person is and where I can find him/her?


	13. Chapter 13

**Gevaden: When last I left you Morrowind was at peace, Now there is a huge rush for power but everything is being taken by a Coalition made up of Vivec, Marius The Ancient, The Holy One, Ryan and Gratis. Some people are not happy with these five having control over all the Guilds and various Factions as they now basically own Morrowind.**

**On another story Zebeyna and Moonstar are chasing down The Puppet Master whom is trying to restore his body.**

The War For Morrowind is on… 

Ryan and Gratis sat in Ryan's plantation sipping brandy, the two were chatting and looking over some finances.

"It would seem the end of this war is very profitable for us." Said Gratis as he stared at a sheet that told him about the status of the Fighters Guild, people were hiring fighters to aid them in restoring what they had lost since the war started, this was earning the Guild Master a lot of money. The same was happening with everything, people were hiring guilds in mass amounts to aid them in one way or another and this was earning a lot of money.

"Indeed it is, but I don't think the war is really over." Replied Ryan.

"I know, there are several loose ends that need to be taken care of. Like what's going to happen with Almalexia? Is she still going to stand trial in Mournhold?" asked Gratis.

"Actually I think her trial is on an indefinite hold until things are sorted out." Replied Ryan while he looked over the money that he was making through the Mages Guild.

As they discussed someone came into the room and got Ryan's attention.

"Sorry to interrupt gentlemen but Marius sends word that your presence is required in Vivec, there is a slight uproar. He says that these scrolls will send you straight to him." said a messenger in common robes, his face beaten by the weather.

"Thank you." Said Ryan as he received the scrolls and handed one to Gratis. The two read them and were transported to the temple in Vivec. They were in Saryoni's office.

"Hello boys, we have a little trouble, I'm sure its nothing you can't handle." Said Saryoni pointing to the door.

The two walked out and found a mob of forty or more people.

"What a surprise that you two would turn up, you're the ones that have all the money!" shouted one of the men.

"What's the trouble hear?" asked Gratis to the crowd.

"You two are taking over everything and we're powerless to stop you!" shouted another member of the mob.

"Do you all remember the war? The war that was fuelled and funded by money? Do you remember it? The war that cost thousands of lives in just one battle? The Coalition has earned control over the various Guilds and Factions so that we can control things and stop that war from starting up again!" replied Ryan to the crowd.

"If the coalition is taking over everything then why is it that you two are the head of everything?" asked a woman.

"It's true that we are the face of the coalition and they operate through us but when did the other three members ever show their faces?" responded Gratis.

"What are you doing to unify Morrowind?" asked another member of the mob.

"We are starting a single army to secure Morrowind, we are writing up the laws to suit the two nations that live here and we are designing projects to restore the damaged towns and lands." Said Ryan.

"Of course an army to secure the land, you mean you're starting an army to make sure we stay in under your grip!" shouted another person.

These questions lasted for an hour or so until people started to get bored and started to leave. Once they were finished the two were called to the temple again.

Saryoni and several Imperial Officers were standing in the library, opposite them was what looked like a grey Ordinator with his armour designed differently so that he looked more like a Imperial Templar. His armour was slightly enchanted so that it gave slight benefits to intelligence, use of long swords and marksmanship weapons.

This was the uniform of the new army; it wasn't as protective as the Indoril Armour but the enchantments made up for it. Ryan and Gratis walked in and saw the new armour.

"What's this?" asked Ryan.

"The armour of the new Imperial Ordinators." Said Saryoni proudly.

"What weapons do they have?" asked Gratis. The soldier reacted as if he had been told to do this when someone asked this question. He pulled out a quarterstaff.

"His quarterstaff is one of the new Imperial Ordinator quarterstaffs, it's heavy and effective in dealing with an enemy. The higher ranked members of the military will have special staffs that also hit major fire damage and are made of tougher stuff!" Narrated Saryoni.

The soldier then put the weapons away and took out a crossbow.

"The crossbow is your basic steel crossbow, it just looks different, it matches his armour. The bolts on the other hand will paralyse a foe for two seconds. Once again easy to produce but effective." Continued Saryoni.

"All Imperial Ordinators are trained to use paralyse, blind, fire and charm magicka. So what do you think?" Finished Saryoni.

"Bar their magicka what others skill are they trained in?" asked Gratis.

"Bar what they're equipment requires training in they are also trained in acrobatics, athletics and security. But there is several training courses that they can undertake, we encourage them to take several courses as to make them better warriors and also the different courses would give them different promotions." Replied one of the Imperial Officers.

"That's very impressive, and how much would a complete soldier cost The Coalition?" asked Ryan.

"To fully train and equip a standard soldier is two thousand gold pieces, they pay for there own training courses." Replied another Imperial Officer.

"That's cheaper then I thought, well it's all very impressive and I can't wait to see them in action." Said Ryan before leaving, Gratis not far behind.

Meanwhile in a dark cave somewhere the door was kicked open.

Moonstar and Zebeyna rushed in and started to slice and chop at the minions that patrolled the cave.

The numbers were large but not large enough to hold of the two. Moonstar's blade cut through the steel armour of the black skinned Orcish creatures with ease, a dozen fell at his feet. Zebeyna used her Daedric Wakizashi to dispatch several before leaping over several others and starting to hit them from behind.

The two killed off the first batch of guards. They had no time to stop to they moved through the cave, they came across several patrols but they slayed every beast they cam across. They did meet one obstacle, a creature they had not met before. It was Ogrim like in appearance but taller and it had skin as dark as coal. The creature through large boulders at them but Moonstar eventually ran up to it and jumped up onto its shoulder, he drove his scimitar into its shoulder and then pulled it out and drove it into its neck. The creature grabbed Moonstar and through him across the cave.

The creature fell over and died, Moonstar slowly got up and realised that one of Pauldrons had been bent horribly out of shape, it was also causing a lot of problems in moving his arm. He had to remove it.

"What was that thing?" asked Zebeyna.

"Looks like The Puppet Master has been experimenting with more creatures. Ogrims this time." Replied Moonstar.

The two pressed on until they entered a pat of the cave that looked like the end. They could see a thin path that went up rather far, someone had candles lit up there and they could here someone humming something.

"It must be him." said Zebeyna as she started to run up the path with Moonstar right behind her.

But of course the black Orcish minions, a dozen from either end of the path, attacked them. They started to fight the minions and knock them off the path, the ones that fell landed in a large pool of lave.

The two defeated the minions and ran up the path were they found The Puppet Master during his ritual. But he was protected by ancestral ghosts. They flew all around the two but were no match for Moonstar and Zebeyna but everyone they defeated was summoned again by what seemed to be a magicka-using minion atop a ledge not far from the two who were battling fiercely. Moonstar had had enough and started to slice and push his way through the ghosts.

Moonstar made his way right up to The Puppet Master and as he raised his scimitar to strike he was attack by two people. Moonstar felt someone grab his shoulders and pull him through the air; he felt his back crash on some rock when they let go. Moonstar looked at where he was, back at the foot of the path.

His attackers were vampires but they also proved no match for Moonstar as he slew them after a short fight. He looked up at Zebeyna, the minions that had been summoning the ghosts were launching themselves at Zebeyna but she was striking each of them back at knocking them down into the pool of lava below. Moonstar rushed by beside her as she swiped at the last of minions.

The two ran up to The Puppet Master but they were too late, they watched as he got up. He was now a young man no older then twenty-five.

"I don't remember you being so young?" asked Zebeyna.

"I have achieved immortality, I have discovered a magicka that will reduce my age but not my power or my strength!" laughed The Puppet Master as he took off his special black armour and dropped it to the floor. He threw on some robes and a cloak over that and opened a chest, he pulled out an Enchanted Daedric Dai-Katana.

"I have one question, why did you need the ring?" asked Moonstar.

"It is a marvellous creation, far beyond anything a regular person could create, of course its maker did create the two greatest warriors of our age didn't he? But either way it doesn't just allow you to change into a werewolf, it takes a little bit of that lycanthrope bite and sucks it up only to slowly place in back into someone when they are in a human state. It slowly turns someone into a werewolf human hybrid creature, surely you noticed its effects did you not?" asked The Puppet Master.

"I might have noticed some changes in my physical and mental state." Replied Moonstar.

"Well I was able to suck up all the werewolf power stored in the ring, without effecting my appearance or mental state. Take the ring I don't need it anymore." He finished as he threw the ring at Moonstar who caught it.

"Lets just kill this creep." Whispered Zebeyna.

"Good idea." Said Moonstar who leapt into the air. The Puppet Master also gave a great leap and the two were headed right for each other but it was The Puppet master who gave Moonstar a kick into the chest causing Moonstar to fall back and tumble down the path a bit.

Moonstar quickly jumped up to his feet and dodged an incoming Dai-Katana. Moonstar drew his Scimitar and started to clash with The Puppet Master. Zebeyna jumped to his aid with her trusty Daedric Wakazashi, she struck at The Puppet Master with her weapon but he quickly flicked the Katana behind him and deflected her blow.

The Puppet Master was able to fight the two of them with slight difficulty but as they fought they moved around the cave and the noise of the fight earned the attention of Minions that Moonstar and Zebeyna had missed when they first arrived.

As the two were rushed by more minions The Puppet Master jumped away to give himself a quick chance to catch his breathe. Even with his newfound physical ability fighting these two was tiring.

The Puppet Master realised that he had more important business to attend to so he opened a portal to his domain with a magic amulet he had. More minions poured out whilst he left to attend to business.

The two continued to fight the minions in their massive numbers but eventually had to flee. Zebeyna used a special spell worked like Divine Intervention but teleported the two of them instead of just her.

They arrived in Balmora.

Back in Vivec several friends sat to a drink. Sabre, Ershedro, Vjad, Sparhawk, Aoku, Jaros and Isude were chatting away and enjoying a drink.

Just then Vvardenfell and Shardae entered with several of the generals that had fought for the Tribunal. Shardae spotted the others and led the Tribunal generals over to the table that everyone else was sitting at.

"How are you lot?" asked Vvardenfell. Everyone responded that they were well.

"These are Astelan, Turv and Kedar." Said Vvardenfell pointing to the appropriate general each time before turning to introduce the Imperial generals. After everyone was introduced they all sat down to have a drink, things seemed to be going well but Sparhawk could not contain his rage much longer, it was an insult that he should have a drink with Kedar, the man that had killed his father. And he was finally pushed over the edge when Kedar said.

"And how's the child of this little group?" he said with a subtle sneer to Sparhawk who was indeed the youngest person present but not a child.

"Shut your face you prick!" shouted Sparhawk, this caused everyone in the public house to turn to see the origin of the sudden outburst. Kedar grabbed Sparhawk around the collar.

"Sit down child, you're making a scene! But I suppose children tend to have tantrums!" said Kedar before pushing Sparhawk into his seat which nearly fell over. Ershedro stood up and put a fist to the table.

"Do you want to take your business outside?" asked Ershedro.

"Hold our tongue Imperial, lest you lose it." Replied Kedar as he drew a knife that was hidden in his boot.

"Typical of a tribunal coward to bring a weapon into such a situation." Responded Ershedro.

"A true warrior always carries a weapon." Interrupted Astelan.

The two groups exchanged comments and insults for a while before a fight broke out. The two sides started to punch at each other. Sadly the Tribunal generals were slightly outnumbered and were eventually thrown out of the bar by the Imperial generals. Kedar then challenged them to a battle in the arena. Against their better judgement they agreed. They'd finish in an arena what they didn't get the chance to finish on the battlefield.

That night when everyone was going home to get a good nights sleep Vvardenfell slipped on a ring that brought her back to what was now her home. Ryan's plantation, which was better known as Clout Plantation (How many of you readers realised that Ryan's last name is Clout?). She was very tired and looking forward to a little chat with her love but sadly Ryan was very busy with work, he was constantly busy since the war ended. Whether he was ordering about the guilds or working on the Balmora restoration project or looking over Morrowinds new constitution making sure that it would suit the Imperial and Dunmer people in Morrowind.

"Why don't we talk anymore?" asked Vvardenfell.

"We do." Replied Ryan as he wrote a letter telling someone to put some of his money into the Balmora restoration project.

"No we don't." she continued.

"We're talking now aren't we?" asked Ryan.

"You're writing a letter to someone, I don't even have your complete attention." She moaned.

"Look, I'm very busy, these are going to be a important few months, a lot has to be done after the war, and I have the guild to run. But how about I but all of my work on hold tomorrow and the two of us just do something together?" he offered.

"That would be great! I knew you wouldn't fail me." She said before placing a kiss on his cheek.

The next day the generals met up in the arena for a real spectacle, people flooded into the arena to watch this battle. The Holy One made a speech before the battle started.

"Welcome ladies and Gentlemen, this battle should be a great one. All money made is going straight to aiding the cities that were damaged during the war. This battle is to the death, it is a special request by the fighters that there is to be no intervention by Imperial Ordinators and nobody is to be allowed out of the arena. Now I'm sure some of you are saying to yourselves, this cannot be a fair fight, one side outnumbers the other side. Well we have taken that into consideration and have brought three fine combatants to join the generals with fewer numbers. These combatants are V'lena, Beeblebrox and Tricia!" shouted The Holy One to much applause.

The three combatants entered the battlefield. V'lena was a Dunmer who wore a full suit of Glass armour bar an enchanted glove she wore on her left hand. Beeblebrox was an Orc who wore the Orcish armour bar his Daedric Face of Terror. Tricia was a redguard knight who wore the Imperial Guard armour hidden by an exquisite robe.

V'lena drew her Daedric long sword and took out her glass shield. Beeblebrox drew his gigantic hammer that was enchanted to disintegrate armour. Tricia drew her custom made claymore.

The two groups stood at opposite sides of the arena and watched each other; some throwing shapes at the audience or striking heroic poses.

Meanwhile a dozen people entered Vivec's palace. Some wore the gear of the Dark Brotherhood, some wore unassuming robes.

"Have you gained the information I asked for?" asked Vivec to the dozen. They gave a nod. One of them walked up to Vivec and handed him a report that complied of many pages.

"Does it prove my suspicions?" asked Vivec.

"Indeed it does my lord." Replied one of them.

"Then give the order to arrest Marius and The Holy One." Said Vivec before ushering the people out of the room.

Marius sat next to The Holy One in the arena. He stood up and walked to the edge and watched as the combatants approached each other.

Two Imperial Ordinators walked up behind him.

"Lord Marius, you are under arrest by order of Lord Vivec." Said One of The Imperial Ordinators. Suddenly a summoned sword flashed into Marius's hand, Marius quickly span around and sliced at the two Imperial Ordinators.

The two men stood still for a second and everyone turned to se what was happening. After a moment The Imperial Ordinators heads slowly fell off. People gasped in horror and shock.

"Come with me Holy One." Said Marius and the two left for Vivec's palace.

The combatants didn't know what to do under these circumstances. They had a mutual agreement to follow the two members of the coalition. They waited outside the palace, some people wanted to enter when they heard the explosions of Magicka and the clanging of weapons.

Soon afterwards three people emerged from the palace. Marius was in front of the other two that stood behind him as if they worked for him, the two behind him were The Holy One and The Puppet Master.

"Vivec is dead, now I rule over Morrowind, any who disagree will die! Come to me my minions!" shouted Marius.

Winged Twilights flew down from the sky and lined up along the palace, Goblins scaled up the sides of the cantons and lined up like soldiers, Clannfears burst through the sewer entrances of the Palace.

People shouted in panic and started to run around.

Vjad ran to an Imperial Ordinator.

"Order the Imperial Ordinators to attack these beasts, hold them off while we kill Marius!" he ordered.

"I don't think so, I follow Marius and nobody else." Said the Imperial Ordinator before pointing his crossbow at Vjad. His voice was not one of a regular being, he seemed to be possessed by a Daedra.

Vjad flicked his sword up and everyone started fighting against the new enemies that covered the city. All over Morrowind places were under attack from the inside. Caldera's towers exploded as Winged Twilights emerged and attacked the guards and besieged the Governors hall.

Sardith Mora was attacked by Ogrims and those larger black Ogrims. Ryan and Vvardenfell were about to start there day together when Ryan spotted The Imperial Ordinators approached him in his home.

"What's this about? I sent word that I was taking a day off!" Ryan said to one of the many Imperial Ordinators.

"You are under arrest. If you don't come with us we will take you by force. Ordered by Lord Marius." Said The Imperial Ordinator.

"There must be a mistake here!" said Ryan, thinking that Marius would never allow something like this.

"Well there's not." Said The Imperial Ordinator, showing Ryan a document that ordered for his arrest on the grounds of "The Murder of King Helseth, The Murder of Sotha Sil, the assault of Almalexia, The Murder of Vivec, and crimes against the people of Morrowind." The Imperial Ordinator went to grab Ryan but Ryan grabbed the arm that came at him and quickly twisted it into a shape arms just aren't supposed to look like. The guard quickly fell.

Ryan's guards quickly ran to his aid and they defeated The Imperial Ordinators. Ryan and Vvardenfell want for a walk for the day but the events of that morning had ruined the mood so they headed back for the plantation.

To their shock when they got back the plantation was under attack by a large amount of Clannfears. Ryan ran to the aid of the guards and started blasting the Clannfears with his shock magicka. He forced his way to the house and grabbed his gear, Vvardenfell grabbed hers and together the two aided the guard in fighting the Clannfears.

Ryan hacked at many of them but they were everywhere, every house on the plantation was being torn down by a dozen and every guard was fending off several of the attackers.

"Madame, we have to flee!" shouted a guard to Vvardenfell.

"I know, but we must convince Ryan of that!" she replied. Vvardenfell ran to Ryan who was busy fighting and told him that they were hopelessly outnumbered. Ryan didn't listen, Vvardenfell watched as four Clannfears ran at Ryan. As they got near Ryan shot his hands forward, lightning shot out and zapped the Clannfears, their bodies danced about as the lightning engulfed their bodies and fried their organs. They eventually dropped to the floor and Ryan concentrated his efforts on a different batch of opponents.

"We must run Ryan, don't throw away the lives of the your guards! Don't throw away our lives!" begged Vvardenfell. Ryan turned to her, she could see in his eyes that he didn't want to run from his home but he could see the sense in what she was saying.

"We'll have to fight through a blockade they've made around the plantation." He said, but as if his words set off a trigger suddenly something was causing a ruckus outside the entrance to the plantation.

Everyone ran to the entrance to see Gratis fighting the Clannfears that surrounded the plantation. One of them jumped onto Gratis's back but was quickly thrown off and earned a hammer to the face for its efforts.

Gratis was using Sunder, one of Kogrenac's tools. The mighty hammer was making short work of the several dozen Clannfears that were attacking him. His brother of course aided him. The two broke a large hole in the blockade and everyone fled the plantation.

"What's going on?" asked Ryan to Gratis.

"Marius has slain Vivec and has summoned all these Daedra, he's taking over everything. I heard that everyone was in Vivec when it happened but everyone is trying to meet up in Balmora, we better go there." Said Gratis. Everyone nodded.

They started the long run to Balmora, they had to stop several times because some people were injured and needed rest.

They eventually reached Balmora and found that it was free of Daedra. Several other adventurers had reached there including Vjad, Sabre, Ershedro, V'lena, Beeblebrox, Tricia and Aoku.

"Where is everyone else?" asked Vvardenfell.

"Some are on there way here, some got captured, we don't know about others." Replied Sabre. Ryan looked at the three newcomers; they were all familiar faces from his childhood, good friends.

"It is good to see that you three decided to make yourselves useful in the war, oh wait no you missed that. At least you're here now." Ryan joked.

"I'll have you now I was very busy during the war!" protested Beeblebrox.

"Really, what was it? A play? A half assed play you made with your sisters?" asked Ryan.

"That play was not half assed, it was that bad on purpose, it made it funny!" replied the Orc.

"Funny? The only person that laughed was five-year-old kids and not even the clever five year olds! It was the stupid five year old kids!" said Ryan with an eyebrow raised.

"We don't have time for this!" Sabre intervened.

"Your right we need to rescue anyone that was captured." Said Aoku.

"The six of us will distract Marius while the rest of you get out the captives. Anyone disagree with that?" Said Ryan while pointing to himself, Gratis, Vjad, Sabre, Ershedro and Beeblebrox.

"I do." Said the voice of a Dunmer. Everyone turned to see one of Her Hands and a woman.

"Zebeyna?" shouted Vvardenfell.

"Its been to long!" said Zebeyna s the two gave each other a hug.

"Its good to see that you're safe." Said Vvardenfell.

"You too. This is Moonstar, we've been hunting The Puppet Master."

"Who's that?" asked several people simultaneously.

"He's a powerful sorcerer, that's been doing some dangerous experiments, he's been producing an army of monsters that resemble Orcs and Ogrims. He's got powerful manipulation magicka…as the name slightly suggests." Told Zebeyna.

"What does he look like?" asked Vjad.

"Young, black robes and cloaks and long brown hair."

"Sounds like the guy that helped Marius kill Vivec." Said Ershedro.

"So all three members of the Tribunal are dead. What a shame, they could have saved us from this great evil." Added Moonstar.

"They're not all dead, Almalexia is alive but she's not the goddess you once knew, her power is seemingly gone. A result of her injuries and defeat in her temple." Said Ryan.

"She is alive? This is a glorious day!" shouted Moonstar forgetting his vendetta against Ryan for defiling the armour.

"Hardly, most of the island has been captured, Vivec has been killed with countless others that tried to fight against Marius." Added Sabre.

"Well we have work to do, I suggest we think out a good plan and stick to it. And if it rally comes to it, we go to Mournhold and bide our time."

**Gevaden: And another chapter finished. Just to tell you (although you might have noticed by now) I won't be updating much over summer as I go to a caravan site most weekends and possibly more depending. In other words saver this chapter as it might be my last for a few weeks. **


	14. Chapter 14

**Gevaden: I'm back for a short chapter more will come soon…hopefully.**

Everyone was ready; they knew what they had to do. The mission was simple. Aoku and Moonstar would sow a seed of chaos around Vivec in their werewolf forms, Astelan and an ally of Ryan's would strike the guards from the shadows, Ryan and Gratis would assault the temple. Those three teams were just distractions, the rest of the heroes and heroines were to sneak into the arena and release the prisoners.

Ryan, Gratis and Astelan were waiting outside Balmora for someone. It was not long before he appeared. He was adorned in black ninja garments that could easily be manipulated to make him look like a member of public. He had a daedric dagger hanging off his belt and a bow at his back.

"Take your time." Said Gratis as if it was some old joke.

"Ahh be quiet you old sod." Replied the newcomer. His voice revealing that he was a youngish Dunmer.

"How are you Masakari?" Asked Ryan.

"I am good my old friend, recent events have been generous to me. A good war always pays well to a good assassin." He chuckled from behind his black cloth garments that covered his face.

"Well that's good to hear, but we have no time for chit chat. This is Astelan, your partner for the job." Said Ryan pointing to Astelan.

The two shook hands.

"You two better head off, you have an important mission ahead of you and only a few hours before nightfall." Said Gratis.

They gave a nod and left Balmora, the two chatting a bit…just to get to know each other.

"We should say good bye to the others before we leave." Said Gratis. Ryan nodded and they walked over to everyone else.

"Moonstar and Aoku already left. They thought it best to leave early just encase something went wrong and they got delayed." Said Vvardenfell to the two brothers as they approached everyone else.

"Good thinking by them, we too shall leave any moment. We just thought we'd say good bye first." Said Ryan. He and Gratis then walked around the group and said their good byes and offered good luck all-round.

The two broke into a run and made for Vivec.

Everyone else left soon after, making his or her way there at a safe speed.

Sometime later…

It was in Vivec and the Imperial Ordinator's were patrolling the streets. Two of them that where towards the City's entrance spotted two figures coming in their direction, but the darkness of night and the speed they moved at made it difficult to see who or what they were.

The two guards soon learned as the werewolves jumped at them with lighting speed and ferocious fangs bared.

The men were slaughtered quickly but made enough noise to get the attention of nearby patrols, this brought more guards to the werewolves and caused more of a distraction. Moonstar and Aoku were doing their job well.

Meanwhile at the St. Olm canton two guards were standing around. Watching for anything. They never saw their attackers come from behind, slit their throats and throw them over the barrier into the water below.

The two snuck back into the shadows and made their way to the various cantons in the area, they'd attack a single patrol then leave for another canton. They struck three cantons in a cycle.

Meanwhile Ryan and Gratis were swimming towards Vivec Temple. Once they were close enough they levitated up to the base of the stairs that lead to the Temple.

Inside the Temple the three leaders sat. Suddenly Marius looked to the door, as if had heard or sensed something.

"What is it old wizard?" asked The Holy One.

"Focus, and check for yourself." Replied Marius. The Holy One and The Puppet Master sent out a mental scout.

"I found the problem. The Brothers are here. I'll deal with it." Said The Puppet Master as he sent a mental message to his general.

Ryan and Gratis were half way up the stairs, weapons ready and ears listening for something.

Suddenly people were running out from the sewer system in the temple.

"This would be the welcoming party." Said Ryan.

"Please don't say that, it's so clichéd." Joked Gratis. It was moments before the two were surrounded.

"Vampires." Muttered Ryan to Gratis. The vampires rushed at the two who exploded into a flurry of attacks.

Ryan was spinning his thunder-enchanted sword around and was slicing his opponents to shreds. Gratis was shattering their bones with his Daedric Mace in one hand and a large cleaver in the other hand.

Ryan's armour was quickly tarnished by the blood of the vampires that fell into pieces around him.

Gratis smashed vampires into each other with his mace and sliced them in half with his cleaver.

Meanwhile every else was easily able to sneak into the arena with all the chaos that was going on around in Vivec.

They made their was into the arena and found the prisoners, they were held in the pit with a large iron grating placed over the pit. Guards quickly spotted the intruders rushed at them.

Ershedro, Vjad, Sabre, Vvardenfell, Zebeyna, Tricia, V'Lena and Beeblebrox Started a fight with the two-dozen guards present.

Kedar whom was inside the pit used a levitation spell to bring himself up to the iron grating, then he used a telekinesis spell to pull the key at the guards belt to himself. He opened a hatch in the iron grating. Anyone who could levitate flew up and carried a warrior that couldn't fly with them. The escaped captives grabbed at the guards and helped the others kill the guards.

The adventurers aided the others in getting out of the pit and soon everyone was out.

The freed captives that could fight looted the guard's dead bodies and equipped themselves. Vvardenfell looked at the faces of the guards. The skin over their faces was stretched and decaying, their eyeballs and teeth in full view as the skin no longer covered them properly.

"Kedar!" shouted Vvardenfell.

"Yes?" he replied.

"You escaped yourself, why didn't you escape until now?"

"Well if I escaped earlier I would have been quickly killed by the guards, your rescue attempt gave me the aid I needed to escape successfully. It's rather obvious if you think about it." He said with a posh upper class tone that would have been far more effective if he wasn't covered in dirt and wreaking of urine.

"Well let's get out of here." Shouted Vjad as he led everyone outside.

"Wait, might we go to the arena storage area, they are keeping our equipment down there, I over heard a guard say so." Said Zebeyna from behind an Imperial Ordinator's helmet.

"Fine, Sabre, will you escort them their while the rest of us lead the non-adventurers to safety?"

"Of course." He said as they rushed towards the arena storage area.

Back at Vivec Temple.

Ryan and Gratis slouched over for a moment as they got back their breath. They looked up at Vivec Temple as they heard the door open.

The Puppet Master calmly walked out and held out a hand as he summoned a sword. He started to walk down towards the brothers and after only taking a few steps more vampires poured out from the top tier sewer entrance, they spread out behind him in lines so precise it was clear that they had extreme military training.

Ryan and Gratis were half way up the stairs and The Puppet Master was standing three quarters way up. He held out a hand and the vampires that must have numbered in excess of a hundred took out crossbows. The Puppet Master dropped his hand and the vampires fired a round of bolts at Ryan and Gratis who merely waved a hand each and the bolts flew off in various directions.

Ryan and Gratis ran at the well organised and lined up Vampires, The Puppet Master had made his way up through the flanks of Vampires and now watched from the top of the stairs as Ryan and Gratis clashed with his vampires.

Ryan loosely swung his sword with one hand and blasted vampires all-around him with a continuous chain of lightning.

Gratis held his large sword in both hands now and sliced at the vampires.

The vampires were shooting their crossbows at Ryan and Gratis but because of their opponents speed they hit each other or just missed completely.

Vvardenfell and Moonstar stood tall, proud and victorious. There were no more guards to oppose them. They had received minor wounds but they would heal.

But the combat had put their blood thirst to a raging level and like addicts they had to have more.

They rushed to the opposite side of Vivec to aid Ryan and Gratis.

Astelan and Masakari whom also could find no more patrols, but they were much more patient then the werewolves, so they waited in the shadows. They knew that the fight would come their way and when it did they would be ready.

Ryan fought his way through the vampires and up to The Puppet Master who flicked his hand and summoned a sword. The two clashed momentarily but then The Puppet Master jumped to the roof of the temple. Ryan leapt after him.

The two clashed on the roof again but not for long.

"It's clear that you have power young Breton. The question is how much?" said The Puppet Master as he ran to the edge of the temple and jumped. He flew straight through the sky and landed on the nearest canton.

Ryan knew he couldn't make a jump than far so he jumped into the crowd of Vampires, fought his way through and ran after The Puppet Master.

Ryan eventually made his way to The Puppet Master on the canton roof.

Masakari and Astelan crept onto the roof to join the two. They stood behind The Puppet Master and a slight turn of his head notified that he knew that they were there.

"Well if your bringing friends I might as well." The Puppet Master raised his hands and dropped them to his sides, as his hands slapped his sides black smoke exploded from the floor and when the smoke had cleared up it revealed the presence of several vampires.

Masakari jumped to one side and kicked a vampire over the edge, another vampire tried to crack him over the shoulder from behind but Masakari grabbed the arm and threw its owner to the floor, a quick boot to the face defeated the vampire.

Astelan started cartwheeling around the roof cutting at vampire's ankles with his knife.

Ryan simply pushed them aside until he had reached The Puppet Master. As Ryan approached The Puppet Master his opponent thrust an open palm in Ryan's direction and as if an invisible fist and punched Ryan in the chest Ryan was blown back to the edge of the roof. Ryan jumped to his feet and leapt jumped in the direction of The Puppet Master, The Puppet Master jumped into the air a Ryan and the two exchanged a quick sword clash before landing.

As soon as the Vampires had been taken care of Astelan and Masakari ran at The Puppet Master.

Gratis drove his sword through the last of the vampires. He looked over at the canton and saw The Puppet Master summon a second bunch of vampires on the roof.

He could see them all rush at Ryan and drag him off the roof. Ryan and the vampires fell off the roof and missed the top floor; instead they plummeted to the second and crashed into the barrier.

Gratis ran to aid his brother. His path was interrupted by a small horde of goblins. He didn't slow down, he just smashed some of them aside.

But they followed after and he was forced to put them down. They put up little competition to the warrior put slowed him down a lot.

By the time he reached Ryan, Ryan had defeated the vampires. Ryan was sitting down against the wall catching his breath and wiping bits of something off his armour.

"Head to the roof, they'll need all the help they can get." Said Ryan.

"What about you?" asked Gratis.

"I need to rest for a second, I'll be with you soon." Said Ryan as he rubbed his neck.

"Fine, but you better follow soon." Said Gratis before making his way to the roof.

Astelan felt The Puppet Masters foot kick his hand and knock the dagger from his hand. Astelan blasted The Puppet Master with a weak fire spell. The Puppet Master fell back. Masakari threw a Ebony dart at The Puppet Master but The Puppet Master dodged it.

Masakari ran at The Puppet Master but was caught off guard by The Puppet Master's lightning fast speed. Masakari received a sharp elbow in the side but managed to grab a hold of The Puppet Master. The Puppet Master found himself stuck in the position that Masakari held him in.

Astelan took advantage of this opportunity, he charged up his most powerful spell and blasted The Puppet Master, the spell hit The Puppet Master right in the centre of his chest. The small ball of fire exploded and flames covered the body of The Puppet Master but the blast radius covered the entire roof. Astelan and Masakari were both blown off the side. Gratis had just jumped onto the roof and was blasted right back off by the spell. The Puppet Master wasn't knocked anywhere, he had collapsed on the spot.

Masakari had fallen straight into the water and was now swimming to the shore where everyone was to gather when the mission was over. He found the escaped prisoners.

Astelan was trying to climb onto his feet. He looked over to the sound steps coming in his direction. He couldn't tell if it was Masakari or The Puppet Master. As the figure got closer another figure jumped in the others ones way. It was Ryan, jumping to Astelan's aid.

Gratis came soon after.

"Gratis, get Astelan out of here, I'll find you later." Shouted Ryan. There was too much conviction in Ryan's voice for Gratis to disagree but before he could even aid Astelan someone struck Gratis from behind. Gratis could feel a hand grab onto his neck and ram his head into the wall. Gratis was then thrown over the barrier into the water.

Gratis emerged from the water and was just able to dodge Astelan as he fell down at him.

The two swam to shore and met up with everyone else.

"Is everyone here?" asked Shardae to no one in particular.

"No, Ryan's not. He'll join us when he can. If he's not back in three days then we can worry. But for now lets get out of here." Said Gratis as he started to lead the people back to Balmora.

**Gevaden: That's it, another chapter! I hope you liked this one. I'd like to here your input and the things you like about the fic and the things you dislike. Be honest…please!**


	15. Chapter 15

Gevaden: Another chapter! I hope your enjoying the fic. (Well I suppose you wouldn't be reading this far if you weren't) If you spot any problems or mistakes please tell me. (That goes for older chapters too.)

Everyone passed through the gates of Balmora. Shardae could feel the rain pouring down heavily on her face. She could hear some people crying over someone they knew who hadn't made it when they escaped from Vivec.

Shardae looked around, what a miserable sight. Everywhere she looked she saw miserable people, wet people, cold people, injured people.

People rushed to homes they owned before they were captured. Others flocked to empty homes or to homes of friends and family that lived in Balmora.

Shardae could over hear Gratis and Kedar talking.

"There's not enough homes for everyone, what are we going to do?" asked Kedar.

"Rough it for a while, meanwhile we'll try and get some people Seyda Neen. And if it comes to it we'll move into some old Dunmer strongholds or Dwarven Ruins." Replied Gratis.

"I suppose that would be best."

Shardae ducked into one of the large homes where some other adventurers were living.

Aoku threw her a towel.

"You should dry off, you'll catch your death if you don't." said Aoku before going upstairs and trying to aid Astelan's burns.

Masakari was lying out on a roof, the rain cooling his body. Sparhawk found him up there after a few minutes.

"Might I ask you your name stranger?" asked Sparhawk.

"I am Masakari. I grew up with Ryan and Gratis, I was great friends with Ryan, Gratis had his own friends. Ryan called me to help him in the rescue mission." Said the half naked Dunmer.

"Why are you up here? There's enough rain to drown you." Asked Sparhawk.

"I was hit by a nasty fire spell, this rain is very cooling. But I am getting very cold." Said Masakari before very slowly getting up and throwing his clothes over his shoulders.

The two walked into the house they were standing on and dried off.

Back in a different house Vvardenfell approached Gratis.

"Gratis, where is Ryan?" she asked, her face riddled with worry.

"He is either on his way back or he has been captured. I cannot tell you which but if he is not back in three days we will go back for him."

"Why didn't he come back with the rest of us?" she asked.

"We were jumped, attacked by The Puppet Master, some vampires and someone else. There was nothing we could do, he jumped in to give us a chance to escape."

"How did you escape?"

"We didn't someone threw Astelan and I over the edge, he or she didn't throw Ryan over, we presume they had a reason for it."

"He's your brother, how could you not go back to save him!"

"He threw himself in dangers way to give us time to escape, if we went back we would have been captured or worse. Ryan would not want his act to be in vain. Would he?" Asked Gratis, but Vvardenfell had no answer.

"Well would he?" asked Gratis with a less then sympathetic look for the worried Vvardenfell. She didn't respond she just left. Gratis gave a sigh and went back to something he was writing up, just to remind himself of what options he had for the future.

Back in Vivec…

Ryan was pushed to the floor before Marius, he wasn't even pushed to the floor but he had no strength to stay standing. His hands were chained behind his back despite the fact that he couldn't stand never mind attempt an escape.

"You have brought him, well done." Said Marius to the mercenary.

"Thanks, now give me my pay." Said the female Dunmer.

"Of course." Said Marius as he threw a small bag to her.

"This couldn't possibly hold the money you promised." She snapped.

"If you actually look inside you will find a key, this key opens a door in a house in Caldera, the room is bursting at the seems with your pay. More gold then you've ever seen." Said Marius.

"Why should I believe that the money is there?" she asked.

"Because if you don't then you won't check the room and you won't find the gold. Now get out of my city." Said Marius.

"Fine which house is it?" she asked.

"Find it yourself." Replied Marius. As he said it The Puppet Master entered the temple. The Dunmer realised that starting a fight would surely result in her demise so forcing the information of where her pay is would be out of the question.

"I'll be on my way then, and do understand that the next time we meet I'll try and kill you." Said The Dunmer as she turned to leave.

"Trying and doing is different." Marius replied. The Dunmer didn't give a response she just left. She made it her business to bump her shoulder into that of The Puppet Master but she found that she couldn't even move his shoulder slightly. It was like walking into a wall, she just managed to look stupid in front of the current Dark Lord.

The Dunmer woman started her way to Caldera. The woman's name was Shindra, and before the land went spiralling into anarchy and chaos she was a member of house hlaalu, the imperial legion and the cult, the tribunal temple, the thieves, mages and fighters guild. She worked on both sides of things before the war broke out, that way she could always get a job when she wanted or needed one.

She threw a hood over her head and disappeared into the darkness of night.

Back in the Temple Marius looked at Ryan.

"Look at you, beaten and captured." Sneered Marius. His face was riddled with confidence and wisdom.

"What do we do now?" asked The Holy One.

"Simple, he will tell us everything or we will let it happen." Replied Marius.

"Let what happen?" asked The Holy One, surprised that something could happen without his knowing of it.

"Show him." Said Marius to The Puppet Master. The black clad warrior walked over to Ryan, picked him up by the hair and revealed the bite marks on Ryan's neck.

"Lock him up in his specially prepared cell, make sure he is chained up well. Tell Deadwood to get everything out of him, also replace the patrols. Stick to Daedra and Goblins, those Ordinators were useless." Ordered Marius.

"Immediately Master." Said The Puppet Master before leaving, dragging Ryan by the ankle. Once The Puppet Master was gone the other two started talking.

"His youthful body is doing him well, his physical capabilities are most impressive." Said The Holy One.

"Yes, but his attitude is getting more youthful also, his confidence, his sense of invincibility, he's become rash and forgetful of his manipulation powers. His minions are doing nothing." Added Marius sharply.

"Then release them."

"What?"

"Release them onto the lands with one order."

"And what would that be?"

"Destroy all magic users."

"Why just magic users?"

"It would give us complete control of Magicka in the land, we would become Gods among men."

"I see the logic, we shall try it. But it will need more thought, give it a few days of thought and we will act on it." Finished Marius.

Back in Balmora Vjad, Ershedro and Sabre sat around drinking.

"So here's the plan, I'll go to Vivec…and then I'll find Marius and I'll slap him in the face and tell him to stop being such a jerk!" Said a very proud but overly drunk Ershedro.

"I'll remind you of that plan when your sober." Laughed Sabre.

"You're the best Sabre." Said Ershedro before tilting his chair over and falling onto his head.

"Is it just me or did Ershedro go through eight drinks before we finished our third?" Asked Vjad.

"He did it." Said Sabre while he watched Ershedro pick himself up.

"Okay a proper plan, we all get invisibility spells, we sneak into Vivec, get Ryan and teleport out." Said Vjad.

"No, my plans better!" shouted Ershedro.

"Sure it is." Said Sabre.

"Thank you Sabre, why can't you be more like him?" asked Ershedro.

"He is pretty great isn't he?"

"He sure is." Said Ershedro with a hiccup.

"Say his name again."

"No bother, it's Scimitar…that's wrong I ment' Blade. NO NO it's BOOBS!" said Ershedro before putting back another glass.

"Should we place him on something he can sleep on?" asked Vjad.

"I guess." Before kicking the chair from under Ershedro. Ershedro landed with a thud but before anyone even had a chance to help him up they could hear him snoring and were satisfied that he could sleep there.

Moonstar was seeking out Gratis, when he had eventually found him he made his reason for being their brief.

"Moonstar, how may I help you?" asked Gratis when he spotted Moonstar looking at him.

"We must go to Mournhold."

"Why?"

"Simple, a goddess is there, what greater source of power do we have. She will help us, she is my mother I know her best."

"True maybe, how about this, you help me in a rescue mission for Ryan and then we will go to Mournhold to find your mother." Offered Gratis.

"I suppose that's fair. Summon me when you need my presence."

Back in Vivec.

Ryan felt his tooth fall out.

"Tell me, where are you rebels hiding out?" shouted the large beast man.

"Fine I give in, their hiding…in the that canyon." Muttered Ryan.

"Which one?"

"Urass."

"I neva erd of it, where is it?" asked the guard who obviously didn't get the insult.

"Its between these two big fat smelly things."

"What big fat smelly fings?"

"The base is up your ass!" shouted Ryan. This earned him a crack across the face.

"Funny man, very funny. Well those bite marks on your neck will cause you to see fings our way." Sneered the guard. This wiped a slight smile off Ryan's face. Being a vampire is not something Ryan fancied.

"Balmora! There all in Balmora!" Ryan said in the most sarcastic voice he could summon.

"Oh really, I think your taking the piss."

"Okay there're in Caldera, or was it one of those ashlander camps?" Joked Ryan.

The creature had to leave the room as not to strangle Ryan with rage. Ryan looked around the room, it was a plain room, green walls, green floor. The only things in the room were the chains that linked the floor to Ryan's wrists.

Ryan was alone in the room for about an hour before The Puppet Master came in.

"I'll give you one more chance to tell us everything."

"I'll have to refuse." Replied Ryan.

"Fine." Said The Puppet Master as he raised a hand, a reddish glow came from his hand and Ryan could see a reddish mist stretch out to him and creep into Ryan, it seemed to go straight through his skin.

Ryan felt an immediate tiredness, he couldn't hold his eyes open for long and soon he was asleep.

The Puppet Master watched as Ryan went from a gentle slumber to a petrified sweating frenzy. For Ryan was having a dream, in this dream he saw images of people he knew, trusted, respected and loved but in this dream they were dying…by his hand. Ryan watched as a black cloaked version of himself threw Vvardenfell to the floor and drove a sword through her heart, then he watched as the same figure electrocuted Vjad to death and then moved on to slice up Ershedro in combat. He even snapped Sabre's neck.

These nightmares haunted Ryan for hours and hours, for a seed had been implanted on Ryan's brain. This seed was growing into a dark hand that wrapped its spindly fingers around his mentality.

Back in the Temple.

"We must kill The Puppet Master." Said Marius.

"I won't even ask why, our conversation has revealed many reasons." Replied The Holy One.

"Indeed."

"How shall we do this?"

"You will paralyse me, and drag me to a cave. I shall summon The Puppet Master to aid me in return for some prize. When he arrives you two will battle and when the time is right I shall spring into action and we shall kill him."

"Excellent, when do we act out this plan?"

"Right now." Said Marius as he already started to set-up his fiendish plan.

When The Puppet Master returned to the temple he found that it was empty, he searched the room with his mind, looking for some mental clues, traces of Magicka. He found a vision of what had happened. He watched as The Holy One and a dozen Daedra ambushed Marius. He saw everything, even the cave that Marius had been taken to.

The Puppet Master left at once to save his master. It was not long before he reached the cave, he kicked opened the door and saw several Daedra rushed him, he summoned his sword and quickly struck them down.

He looked around, Marius was held in place by some strange talisman. The Holy One eyeballed The Puppet Master.

The Holy One blasted a ball of fire at The Puppet Master who easily dodged it. He jumped at The Holy One but only hit a wall of earth that rushed to the aid of The Holy One after he used a strange brown gem.

The Holy One moved slowly around the cave blasting various Magicka spells at The Puppet Master who evaded each with grace and ease.

Eventually The Puppet Master was able to slice of The Holy One's right arm and kicked him to the floor. The Puppet Master jumped over his opponent and held his sword to The Holy One's neck. The Holy One looked to Marius for aid.

"Kill him." Ordered Marius. The Holy One gave one more look of fear and shock at Marius before losing his head.

"Well done Puppet Master, I would like to reward your help and loyalty with a spell of great power, I'm sure you'll be able to use it well." Said Marius as he was released. He blasted a green line at The Puppet Master who took the blast in the chest, for this spell was what taught The Puppet Master the spell. It was a spell to summon another sword, this one was more dangerous, and it would annihilate his enemies.

The Puppet Master summoned the sword and knew it instantly. The Sword Of The Dark Lord, it was sear through limbs like air.

"The world is ours!" said Marius proudly.

"No!" shouted The Puppet Master as he flicked the sword up and drove it through Marius's shoulder. He then smashed Marius into the chest with his elbow, which knocked the ancient wizard off the summoned blade. Marius fell to the floor and grabbed at his wound.

"Everything will be mine!" said The Puppet Master as he drove the sword through Marius and killed him. The Surviving member of the coalition took Marius's gauntlets; they would allow him to easily control Marius's pawns and soldiers.

**Gevaden: I hope you liked it! I know I did, please offer your ideas or suggestions as I'd love to know what you think of everything and anything.**

**If anyone thinks characters should defect to aid The Puppet Master please tell me who and why. **


	16. Chapter 16

**Gevaden: Another Chapter, I recently noticed that while I ask you to ask questions I don't really answer them, I'll do that know.**

**Dinos: Firstly, I put the Tribunal in dim view because I knew very little about them for quite some time (Although I have by now completed the Mournhold Missions and defeated Doguth Ur so I have a much better idea by now.)**

**Secondly, very few of the characters in the fic are in the game, and many of the characters that are in the game are dead by now.**

**I can't find any other questions at the moment but maybe I'll spot them at another date.**

Ryan was sitting in the same place as he had been sitting in since he was captured. His eyes were so heavy, but he was scared to go to sleep and fear wasn't something Ryan experienced often, but when he slept recently he was attacked with those brutal nightmares of him slaying and butchering his friends and loved ones.

The Puppet Master walked in, walking tall and confident. But this time something was different, The Puppet Master was different.

"How are we today?" asked The Puppet Master.

"Fuck yourself." Ryan barked.

"I don't think I will, but I might fuck your little girlfriend. Well I believe the term is rape but regardless. I'll give her a little dark seed, just like the one I gave you." Said The Puppet Master with a big grin. Ryan used all his strength in getting and trying to get at his tormentor. He achieved nothing but received a sharp elbow to the gut.

In Caldera Shindra found her pay, it was in a basement in some random house. The room was full of golden coins. And to think that she had nearly given up hope. She had descended a stairs and picked some coins from the pile…she was rich! Richer then any king or emperor!

She turned around and spotted someone at the top of the stairs. It was clearly a wood elf, his long blonde hair at his shoulders.

"Think you've done yourself a favour?" asked the wood elf with an angry tone.

"Of course, and none of it is yours beggar!" said Shindra, although this fellow was clearly no beggar.

"That gold is useless."

"What do you mean?"

"The land is in anarchy, nobody will barter for gold anymore you prick!" barked the wood elf.

"Who do you think you are insulting me like this?" asked Shindra, trying to take the attention of herself after realising that she had indeed been tricked.

"I am Tanis Ravenclaw, chief of security on the Clout plantation." He said as he drew his short swords.

"I see, I'll take it you know that I brought Ryan to the coalition then?" she asked, knowing that this would soon be a matter of violence, and he had he advantage.

"Yeah I do, you might have damned us all! We need him to defeat the coalition! He's a damn good man, tell me why did you do it?" he asked.

"Because I wanted the money and I wanted to prove myself, I thought that if I defeated a great warrior like Ryan I'd be famous and with the money I was paid I'd buy lots of land and become a figure in the land when this whole ordeal was over. And because I hate Ryan with a passion."

"This ordeal could go on for millennia, the entire coalition is immortal in one way or another!" barked Tanis before jumping down the stairs with his swords ready to kill her.

Shindra cast a shield spell in time but she was still slammed against the gold pile behind her, she could see her attacker lunging at her again, she just narrowly avoided the incoming swords that would have gone deep into her shoulders.

She scampered around until she broke past Tanis and started running up the stairs. She got out of the house and made a break for the exit of the town.

As she ran she saw an arrow shoot ahead of her, then another but the third hit her hard in the back. She fell to the floor as the arrow sent a magic blast of thunder through her body.

She could hear the steps of Tanis coming at her slowly. She could hear him draw his swords. She rose to her feet, cast hearth heal and started running again, but she didn't make it far as the arrow was still embedded in her back, she tore it out and left out a bloodcurdling scream. She looked back, Tanis was far behind her…she had time to cast another spell and run, she cast hearth heal and ran.

Tanis let her go, he wouldn't give her death, in his eyes she didn't deserve it. Tanis pulled out a letter that he had received recently, it read as follows.

_Tanis_

_How fares your adventures? Personally I can't see how they could be good in such troublesome times but were there is a will there's a way? I won't waste time with anymore formalities, apocalypses razorbacks are upon us and we need to band together if we have any hope of survival, I know you like your solitude but should you need allies you will find us in Balmora. I hope to see you there at some point, I have a feeling we will need all the help we can get if we hope to survive._

_Masakari_

_P.S. Ryan has been taken by the enemy, a dunmer named Shindra is responsible. If you meet her don't kill her, I want to._

"To Balmora then." Said the wood elf before heading south.

In Balmora Turv was working on his sword play when he heard a disturbance. There was some shouting and then a quick ruffle then a big slam and finally the sound of someone running. Turv ran to the origin of the sound, he found Kedar, but he had been stabbed in the stomach and shoulder. Turv could still hear someone running away. Turv ran after the murderer, following the sound of the steps. They were getting louder as he got closer. He heard them stop around a corner and when he went around the turn he was hit in the face by a blind spell, he was instantly blinded and had no idea of what was going on. He felt something slam into the side of his head. Turv fell to the floor, unsure of what to expect when he regained his sight. He heard the footsteps walk away.

He couldn't believe that he had been training and working so hard and when he chases down an assassin he couldn't even get a look at the person.

Turv lay there for awhile, unsure whether to get up and wonder around or to stay here, he chose to stay until his sight to return, and it had started to come back. Eventually he decided to call for help and his pleas where heard by Moonstar who carried him back indoors where Aoku attended to him.

"Turv what happened?" asked Aoku as she cast a healing spell on the bruising to his head.

"I heard a fight break out, when I went to investigate I found that Kedar had been murdered." Turv replied.

"Oh my, that's dreadful! I can't say I knew him very well myself but I saw him walking around and speaking some of the others." This news was not the worst news Aoku had heard in a while but it still it ruined her mood.

"Well I chased the murderer but before I got a chance to see him he hit me with a blind spell and it's starting to fade, I can make out shapes." He finished.

"Well all I can suggest it rest. It'll fade away completely in about an hour and your vision will be as good as new."

"Thank you, that's good to hear." He said before attempting to fall asleep.

Jaros was sitting around a fire with his fellow surviving Nords, he was telling them tales of his feats when he was younger.

"And then I struck down the filthy beast before it had a chance to cast its wicked spell on me!" he said before taking a big bite out of his food. The others gave a cheer of approval.

"That's an interesting tale. You have a silver tongue, that's the mark of a good officer." Said a voice, which came to view, it was Beeblebrox.

"Why thank you orc." Said Jaros not expecting to come across an orc with such a western accent nature.

"And of a liar." Continued the orc.

"What?" said the surprised Nord. The others gave various grunts of disapproval.

"Nords like yourself are too in love with the sounds of your own voices to tell the truth, it's too short, lies can be as long as your imagination lets it." Explained Beeblebrox.

"I don't take kindly being called a liar! I suggest you take it back or raise your fists."

"Hmm…put up your dukes!" shouted Beeblebrox. The Nords got up and formed a circle as too watch the spectacle. Jaros pulled his foot through the dirt, making a large circle.

"Just to make sure no one gets killed we'll have a few rules, firstly try and stay in the circle secondly, no weapons only what the gods and mother nature have given you." Explained Jaros.

"Screw the circle, but no weapons are fine." Replied Beeblebrox.

"That's a fair compromise."

The two squared off and then Jaros struck Beeblebrox in the face, Beeblebrox took the blow and raised his fists in a manner that was mainly to defend his chest and face but would allow him to punch easily.

Jaros was circling Beeblebrox and throwing in punches, Beeblebrox eventually struck back and hit Jaros right on the nose. The two were fighting for quite some time but it was clear that Jaros was the superior fighter.

After some time Beeblebrox was hit hard enough to fall down and have difficulty getting back up. Jaros came at him again but this time Beeblebrox grabbed him around the waist and through him over his shoulder, Jaros landed on his back and was about to jump up but Beeblebrox grabbed him around the foot and started dragging him across the floor. The then started spinning around, eventually Jaros was lifted off the floor by the spinning, Jaros was spinning around in mid-air. It was now that Beeblebrox let go and Jaros flew into a tree. Jaros slowly got up but it left his back slightly sore. Beeblebrox came at him again but before he had a chance to do anything Jaros jumped at him and blew him to the floor with his shoulder.

"Now things get dangerous orc!" said Jaros.

"What are you talking about?" asked Beeblebrox, still on the floor. Jaros looked up to the sky, the moon came out.

Everyone watched as Jaros changed into a werewolf. Beeblebrox got up and started running for the hammer he had put down by a tree before the fight broke out. Beeblebrox reached out for the hammer but a Nord grabbed his wrist.

"No hammers, only what the gods and Mother Nature gave you, and his werewolf condition is a gift from Mother Nature." Laughed the Nord.

Beeblebrox nodded, he had agreed to this fight, and for some reason he had said some rude things that got him into the fight.

The werewolf slowly walked towards Beeblebrox and then suddenly dashed forward, slamming Beeblebrox into the tree behind him.

Meanwhile The Puppet Master sat on his throne. A minion walked in, proudly holding out a very small chest in his hands.

"Do you have what I asked for?" The Puppet Master asked.

"Sir, yes sir!" said the minion as he opened the chest and presented the papers to his liege.

The Puppet Master took them out and gave them a quick look over.

"Perfect, begin construction right now, but Quzloz."

"Yes sir."

"I want it as tall as this palace! Rape the lands to find the materials you need to build it! Melt down junk and things we don't need!" ordered The Puppet Master with a wicked scowl on his face.

Quzloz, the minion left and started shouting orders to people all over Vivec.

Back in Balmora Tanis had arrived and was searching out for certain people, namely Gratis, Masakari, Vjad, V'lena, Tricia and Beeblebrox. He found most of them without hassle, they listened to his plan and agreed on it. Then they needed Beeblebrox, but he wasn't necessary so they left without him.

The group left for Vivec with black cloaks as to stay unseen.

Meanwhile Beeblebrox was trying to crawl away, his body was covered in flesh wounds, mainly cuts.

"I give up! I quit! I am bested!" pleaded the orc. Jaros seemed to understand and left, jumping off to find prey. All the Nords had a good laugh at Beeblebrox and left, leaving him there to reap what he had sowed.

The group that had snuck to Vivec did not know it but they had followers, two people where following them. Neither of the two people was aware of the other one. When they finally made it to Vivec they split up into the various cantons, each of them with some way of turning invisible, whether by spell or scroll or potion.

They where searching for Ryan, but none of them would find him. It was one of the two people that would find him, Isude.

There was a guard watching Ryan but Isude easily dispatched the guard with a well aimed arrow. Luckily the guard had the keys to the padlock on Ryan's chains.

"Thank you." Ryan coughed.

"Let's get back to Balmora." Said Isude.

"No, I can't! I'm going north. I have some things to sort out before I can go back."

"You don't have the strength to travel." Isude pointed out.

"I'll be fine." Ryan said as he crawled to his equipment which was in the room, there to tease him. Ryan put it on and found that he could barely stand.

"I'll come with you!" offered Isude. This would be a great chance to learn the art of combat and survival from Isude's favourite war hero.

"No, it's too dangerous." Responded Ryan.

"I'm coming, you owe me this much I broke you out of here." said Isude.

"I see…your point. You can come if you really want too, but it will be dangerous." Ryan reminded.

"I want to come, I know I do." Isude continued. The two went out the door, Ryan leaning on Isude for strength.

As they were leaving Gratis spotted the two.

"Ryan!" shouted Gratis to get their attention. Ryan turned and looked to Gratis. Ryan just him a look and Gratis understood, he gave Ryan a nod to show that he understood. Then Ryan and Isude were gone.

Gratis found the others quickly.

"They must be keeping him somewhere else." Gratis explained.

"We've searched everywhere between us, bar the palace." Said Vjad.

"We can't risk going in there, The Coalition is too powerful." Continued Gratis as everyone was still unaware that The Puppet Master had killed the other two.

Everyone went home with low spirits. When they went Vvardenfell spotted them and thought that Gratis was Ryan. She ran out but when she got closer she could tell that it was Gratis, they might have been identical twins but she still knew them apart.

"Where have you been?" she asked.

"Never mind, we'll explain in the morning." Said Vjad as everyone went to houses for some rest.

The next morning Ryan and Isude reached the Khuul, where they found a large boat, it would take them north. Little did they know that Kedar's murderer was on board, he knew that they would find this boat and he hid and waited.

**Gevaden: I know the end seemed a bit rushed, that's because it was. I'm just trying to get a chapter up as to keep all you lovely readers with something to take in. Well If you have any questions/comments or anything at all tell me in a review.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Gevaden: I know I'm taking my time with updating but school is taking up time and my low amount of reviews I getting in is convincing me that people are losing interest in the fic, if this is true please give your advice on how to give it . **

**But I hope you enjoy this chapter, and if you want a speedy update….leave a review.**

Several adventurers sat around a table discussing their next course of action, it seemed clear. Go to Mournhold where it will be safer, hopefully. While there they would also seek the guidance of Almalexia, if she can and will bestow it upon them that is.

"We should leave quickly, every moment we sit here they could be closer and closer to discovering our whereabouts." Masakari said. Most people nodded in approval, a few who wanted to stay and continue the attempts to rescue Ryan, despite the fact that they had no idea where to search.

"We can't leave, what if Ryan comes looking for us and he can't find us!" Vvardenfell asked.

"Ryan is strong and wise, he will find us if he escapes the coalition." Gratis responded. Even though he knew that Ryan would not be making their company for several months at the very least, if he ever returned.

Meanwhile Ryan and Isude were just discovering their stowaway who decided to make his presence know.

Ryan looked to the waves, he was still feeling weak and tired but he felt the wash of the cold waves might restore his vigour. Isude was handling the ship and steering towards there goal, the frozen lands of the north known as Starigard. It was a cold, harsh and brutal land inhabitant by the Nords.

But they wouldn't arrive for a few days. It was Isude who heard the stowaway approaching him from behind.

"Sparhawk? What are you doing here?" Isude said in surprise.

"I came here…for my own reasons. But I assure you that I know where you're going and I have things to do there as well." Sparhawk replied with a determined and serious face.

"You've changed so much since you first joined the war." Ryan pointed out, referring to the way that Sparhawk seemed to grow into himself since this all began. He was far more grown up and adult then he used to be.

"Thanks you." Said Sparhawk, grabbing at the elven blades that Ryan had given him a few months ago.

"Well I guess your with us then, we can hardly bring you back, even if we wanted to that is." Isude added.

Back in Balmora everybody was packing up, they had a plan to teleport to Mournhold. Well anybody who could would, then come back with scrolls that would allow everybody else to teleport to the safety of Mournhold, if it was safe.

"Who's going first?" asked Shardae.

"I will, I can teleport there and then come back if it's dangerous." Said Masakari.

"I'll go too." Offered Moonstar.

Gratis gave a nod in approval.

"How shall you two be teleporting there?" asked Gratis.

"This amulet will teleport me to Almalexia's temple." Said Gratis as he revealed an amulet around is neck. Gratis gave another nod. The two looked at each other and soon they were gone in an explosion of light. Everyone stood their silently for a few moments before Ershedro asked.

"Is anybody up for a drink?" Everybody turned and gave a laugh after a moment as they saw Ershedro holding up the last three bottles of booze. While most people got glasses and had a drink, some of the more senior members of the group were realising just how important it was that they make it to Mournhold. They were running out of supplies.

But in the end everybody had a drink, but there was only enough alcohol left for a glass for everyone.

It was half an hour later before people started to worry.

"What's taking them so long?" asked Tricia.

"It could be a number of things." Tanis replied.

"They could be distracted by something trivial." Answered V'Lena.

"We must consider the worst case scenario, they were captured, there being tortured right now and telling someone where we are." Said Gratis.

"Don't be so pessimistic." Said Aoku who kept tapping the table with her fingers in different beats.

The minutes passed by and the group played a few of those annoying waiting games until the two came back, each carrying several scrolls.

"What's it like in Mournhold?" asked V'lena.

"Perfect, no problems at all. These scrolls will teleport everyone to Mournhold." Masakari said as he started to hand out the scrolls.

"Everything is not perfect." Masakari replied. "The temple is hardly perfect, blood still stains the walls and lady Almalexia has not been released, she is still a prisoner to the Emperor."

"Don't worry, we shall see her free." Promised Gratis. "Now let's go."

Everyone cast the spell on their scrolls, and soon they where crowded around the area in front of the temple.

"We're free! We have no worries about the coalition here!" Tricia sang with joy.

"What about accommodation?" asked Gratis suddenly.

"Don't worry, we sorted that out while some people made us the scrolls, we've been given several houses in Godsreach on a three year loan. It should give us plenty of time to get back on our feet, the emperor is very sympathetic to our cause. And priests are already getting the civilians out of Balmora and bringing the here. Everything is taken care of." Masakari said.

"Wonderful, I suggest everyone find somewhere they want to stay and take a day to relax. Everyone meet here tomorrow at three, we can organise our next move then." Gratis said, everyone nodded in agreement and split up.

That night there was celebrations in the flying guar, everyone got pissed off there rocker and told the locals their stories of the war, many of the warriors were known by name. Many seemed to recognise Vjad, Sabre and Ershedro, or "The invincible trio" as they had been nicknamed for there famous feats in the war. Gratis was another well known figure as was Jaros. A few people who weren't present where well known also, namely Ryan and Kedar as they were both famous general.

Many of the locals cared little which side the warriors fought for they just knew the names and had heard great heroic feats, which were blown slightly out of proportion.

The next day everyone met up as planned, although some where late as they had serious

hangovers. The group started thinking as to a plan, most were crap but then Moonstar came up with one that many people liked, they would seek out the guidance of Lady Almalexia.

Everyone made there way to the goddess who was being held in a special cell. When they found her they peered through the bars in the small window of the door, she was sitting down, sort of meditating. Moonstar pushed his way through the group until he was nearest to the door.

"My lady!" he shouted. She recognised the voice instantly and rose to her feet and made her way to the door.

"Moonstar, my precious Moonstar! I had feared for your death, since my temple was taken by the imperials all the others died, the sorrow I felt destroyed my spirit and I lost all divine power I had, but seeing you alive has brought a new vigour to this woman, I am again a goddess. And I need no relic to fuel me." She said with a voice that proved everything she said.

"My lady, we need your advice and consul." Pleaded Moonstar.

"I know child, I know what must be done, there are three witches, and each one has a key that you need if you are to defeat The Puppet Master."

"What of the others in the coalition?" asked Gratis.

"Do you know so little? They are dead, The Puppet Master killed them and took their powers for his own, and his power almost rivals the power I wield once again. But back to the witches, they are evil beings I assure you, and each one will expect a terrible price to be paid if you want the keys they wield. But they must be visited if you are to stand a chance in defeating The Puppet Master and releasing the land which you all love so dearly." She added.

Vvardenfell looked stared at Almalexia as everyone did, and then the lady looked at her.

"But a prophecy has been but in place. Already." The Goddess continued.

"What Prophecy?" asked Moonstar.

"Young Vvardenfell is bearing child, but this child is no normal child. This child shall become so powerful that entire planets destiny shall be its choosing, he may be a saviour greater then the Tribunal or he may wage a war on the heavens and tear the stars from the sky. Guard the child with your lives." Said Almalexia.

"Is there anything else you wish to bestow upon us?" asked Moonstar.

"Of course, it is clear that Vvardenfell cannot go on the voyage to the witches, she is to stay here and give birth to a child, the other women will stay with her and help her, the men lack the maternal abilities to be of any great help but they shall accomplish the task of the witches. It shall be a very long voyage, I am sure the child will be born by the time they return, the first witch is in Megathion, the great forest." She continued.

"I know that forest, I walked through when I was young." Said Sabre.

"I have heard terrible tales of that forest, it holds beasts of horrible being." Added Jaros.

"Every creature you heard about is real, you never heard a lie about that place. It is one of the most harsh and ferocious forests in existence. But you must go their and speak to the witch." Added Almalexia. "when you have been to all three come back, until then I can help you no more."

"My lady, why do you still stand behind this door if you have reclaimed your power?"

"Don't worry my child I shall be free soon, you are another you shall not go on the voyage, you shall stay here and aid me in rebuilding the people's faith. I shall be out soon." She answered. Moonstar was disappointed that he could not have gone on the voyage but if it meant helping the lady, it was far more then worth it.

Meanwhile Ryan, Isude and Sparhawk were in bad weather…and there ship wasn't holding out. The ship turned over and all three were thrown into the water, they were washed up on an island, a frosty island.

**Gevaden: Not my longest chapter but I have a lot coming up, including the adventures on this island and of course the voyage of the witches.**

**I hope you're enjoying it, if you are please leave a review!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Gevaden: Hey folks, another chapter here. I have some good things and surprising things coming up, most in chapters to come. If you want to tell me your favourite characters, chapters and so on and why or your least favourite things about the fic and why it would be really handy as it would help me make better chapters and characters. Oh if I misspelled Almalexia in this chapter and the last one please tell me, it's been awhile since I played the game and I've forgotten the spelling. **

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_But no pass over is planned _

_A great renewal growls at hand_

_- Cthulu Dawn, Cradle Of Filth_

Everyone was taking Lady Almalexia's guidance as law and doing as told; Moonstar was already standing in the middle of the great bazaar telling everyone that passed that the goddess was back and with more power then ever before. Many of the women were already out buying gifts for the child even though they had no idea of what gender it would be. And the lads were preparing for their trip to Megathion which would take a month by boat to reach.

Gratis was purchasing some gear for the trip, mainly food rations, fishing rods and any maps of Megathion he could find, which was one…and it was very crude.

Ershedro was making sure his longs were in perfect condition, perhaps he should enchant them? Maybe in time. Vjad was looking over a book he found on the "three witch's." They were indeed a horrible trio, the one in Megathion for example was infamous for convincing a prince that his father was attempting to raise an army of the undead which would be used to enslave the populace, she "proved" this to the prince by making fake prophecies and showing the prince "evidence" she had found, the prince quickly killed his father, a brave and honourable king. The prince was arrested and executed, the land broke into civil war as various generals and advisors to the king vied for power and in the end the witch played them against each other, the result was the entire nation being wiped out by the civil war. The second witch had made several creatures extinct, the proof that the creatures ever existed was the armour, weapons, magical staffs and amulets she made from their bodies, these creatures including the seai lizard, the scaled wolf and the river phoenix. All magical and wonderful creatures…now extinct to make the witches magical trinkets. She was currently working on the white fairy, a small harmless, gentle and overall friendly creature that bounces about its area helping lost travellers. Handy for making powerful amulets as the wicked witch as discovered. The last witch which was the most cruel and powerful of the three decided one day that he was bored so he set a kiddies crèche on fire, and demands the sacrifice of twelve virgins every year or he'll do it again, but when he's now bothering the nearby village he seems to enjoy summoning demons from a world so foul it makes a daedra lord look like a rabbit, a wounded one.

Vjad put the book into his bag, might be good for a read on the boat. Sabre on the other hand was taking a more superstitious preparation. He was meditating at the moment, preparing his mind for the tasks ahead, he knew what to expect, freezing conditions, the witches would expect him and the others to perform some gruelling task or tasks. They always do.

Masakari, Beeblebrox and Tanis were gathering things to keep themselves occupied whilst on the boat, Masakari was bringing several books on illusion and manipulation, and one book that was hollow, for sneaking skooma onto the boat. Beeblebrox was bringing a play he never finished writing and Tanis was bringing various little puzzle gadgets that would keep him occupied.

Turv was also making sure his equipment was perfect condition. He was bringing several hammers that would allow him to make any emergency repairs.

Astelan was gathering various books on fire magicka and famous people who wielded powerful fire magicka spells.

It was the day of there leaving, the lads approached the boat. It seemed their leaving was a bigger deal then they had realised, it seemed that the entire of Mournhold was here to see them off, people gave them small bags of gold "just in case." Men saluted them, women blew kisses at them and children swung about sticks that were used as toy swords.

Beeblebrox was waving to the crowd in a most dramatic manner, bowing and waving at every chance. Everyone was playing to the crowd in one way or another except for Masakari who just walked to the boat and hopped on, he was doing this for two reasons, one was that he cared little for the glory of his mission and secondly because he wanted a certain image, even the calm ninja had a bit of vanity.

Everyone made their way to the boat eventually; Beeblebrox was last of course, he was sucking up every cheer and howl. He believed in his heart that a lot of these people were hear to see him because of the great plays he had produced, which was completely untrue. There were very few people in the crowds that even knew he had produced plays, and an even smaller number people had seen one.

Everyone took one last look at the people of Mournhold and their friends that had gathered to see them off. Even Masakari was waving to the crowds at this point. Before the ramp to the boat was removed the king approached and gave each of them two amulets.

"This will one bring you back here if anything goes wrong and this one will heal even a very grievous wound." He said as he pointed to the amulets, he then shook each of their hands and left. His guards staying close at all times.

A band started playing as the boat started to depart; everyone stayed and kept waving until the boat disappeared into the distance.

Masakari and Gratis took the first shift and steered the boat. It was moments before a fight broke out on a lower deck.

"It's mine!" shouted Beeblebrox.

"Don't be stupid orc, it's mine!" shouted Jaros. They kept like this for about twenty minutes until Ershedro got bored of watching and decided to flip a coin to decide who was right. Beeblebrox called heads. Ershedro caught the coin and looked at it, blocking it from the others view.

"What is it?" said the two simultaneously.

"Its heads, Beeblebrox wins, he gets the top bunk." Ershedro replied before turning to jump onto a top bunk behind him.

But as he was about to jump Sabre pushed him.

"That's my bunk." Said Sabre.

"No, it's mine." Ershedro said, knowing that this was just a way to liven things up again.

Moonstar was in the great bazaar, his sword held high in the air as he proclaimed of Almalexia's return to godly greatness. Everything was going fine until three people, adorned in white robes approached Moonstar.

"Moonstar." All three said in perfect sync.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"To tell you that Almalexia is not the great goddess you believe she is, she never was and she never will be. Your whole life she has blinded you to the truth." They said, still in this scary sync.

"You dogs, how dare you bad mouth the great Almalexia!" Moonstar shouted as he held his sword in a rather threatening manner.

"Raise not your sword, just raise your awareness." Said the three in unison before disappearing.

**Gevaden: Another chapter, not my best but I'm trying to get somewhere and I just need a chapter or two to get there. **

**I'd like to hear people's suggestions on the three witches. I hope you leave lots of juicy and truthful reviews.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Gevaden: I'm back, this should be a rather short chapter as I plan to write for a little while and post in the same night. If you read this then that's what I did, if not then I didn't write enough in a few minutes.**

The ship carrying the men arrived at the first island. There was a decaying port that served them well. They were a little spooked by the ghost town, but it wasn't nearly enough to stop them from pressing on.

It was not long before they reached a snowy forest, a place that made Jaros and Sabre feel right at home.

"Do we have any idea where to find this witch?" asked Ershedro.

"No, we will just search until we find it." Replied Astelan.

"Do we have anything to guide us at all?" asked Masakari.

"Not that I know of." Replied Beeblebrox.

But there was something that guided them, it wasn't a smell or a sound, or even a mystical energy. It was just something, they all felt it but nobody could tell what it was.

And after an hours walking through the forest they found a small house, a little wooden shack.

As they approached the door opened and the most beautiful voice called out.

"Come in, I know why you are here." They entered and found a very stereotypical scene, the witch was looking into a cauldron, green smoke bellowing out. The witch was indeed the most beautiful woman any of them had ever scene.

"If you know why we are here, will you help us?" asked Vjad.

"Only if you help me first." She replied.

"What do you want us to do?" asked Turv.

"Simple really, there three men after entering my forest, I want them dead. I'm not telling you why I want them dead, just know that they are a trouble to me. So you, you and you will kill them and the rest of you will perform tasks for me." She said, the three she pointed to being Masakari, Astelan and Turv.

She handed them a map that pointed out the whereabouts of the three. The rest of you will stay nearby and do menial tasks, I need wood for my fire and some meat.

"Why can't we all go find these men?" asked Beeblebrox.

"Because I said so, and I have the key that you need to defeating the Puppet Master. So you filthy little orc, go cut down a tree and make it fast."

Everyone did what they where told, some more reluctantly than others but they knew they needed what she had.

Masakari, Astelan and Turv had to trek through the snow for three hours before they found the targets.

The fellows were draped in heavy fur coats, a must have in such a cold climate.

"Who are you?" asked one of the three, a tall silver haired man.

"We have been sent to kill you." Said Turv.

"Ha…the witch sends another three. Alright then. Usual tactics boys." Said the silvered haired man again. The others nodded and ran away.

"Go after them!" shouted Turv, but the others had already started the chase.

The silver haired man dropped his coat to reveal yet another coat, this one was made of what looked like leather, but there was something different about it. He drew a strange sword. It had two blades, not one at either side, two blades side by side with about two inches separating them.

"An interesting sword." Said Turv.

"Unique I assure you, twelve were made. One was given to me. I hunted the wielders of the others, killed them and cast the other swords into a volcano, leaving this one as the only one.

Turv drew his own sword and the two rushed each other. The blades met with a clang of metal, these two were skilled swords men and they didn't stay still for very long, they were leaping at one another and jumping to the threes and in efforts to get around their opponent and catch him of guard.

Turv found his opponent to very a very fluid and acrobatic character, often avoid Turv's sword as apposed to parrying with his own sword. Turv was swing at each shoulder then towards the neck and his opponent just twisted and turned to avoid every attack. Turv preferred to deflect the blows, try to knock him off balance and take advantage.

What's your name?" asked Turv.

"Some call me Kadaj, some call me Grenir, some call me Fettett, take your pick."

"I'll stick with Kadaj." The two exploded at one another with a flurry of assaults. Neither one making any leeway. Kadaj leapt up a tree, then jumped to a branch higher up, then another and another until he was up quite high.

Turv was quick to follow, leaping up and taking a rather different path but eventually the two were swinging about the trees and continuing the fight. Turv Stabbed at Kadaj but missed and his sword got caught in a tree and before he even had a chance to pull it out Kadaj had leapt onto the blade and kicked Turv right in the nose. Turv fell down and smashed into several trees. He managed to land on his feet, sword in hand and deflect an incoming attack from Kadaj.

Turv went completely on the offensive this time and forced Kadaj to use his sword to deflect attacks far more, but eventually Turv slipped up, and this was what Kadaj was feeding on. Turv made a downward strike, Kadaj avoided it and the sword got stuck in a piece of rock under the snow. Kadaj ran up the blade, leapt over Turv's head and kicked Turv right in the back.

Turv pulled the blade free and swung around hoping to get Kadaj, but Kadaj ducked swiftly and delivered a ferocious upwards kick into Turv's jaw.

Kadaj made a giant leap and went up about twenty feet, Turv was right behind him, the two exchanged assaults in mid-air before separating and landing some distance from each other.

Kadaj ran at Turv and moved to the offensive, he leapt at Turv, he was completely horizontal and spinning around, blade pointed at Turv. It was the spinning of the blade that worried Turv, in that position if there swords met it would be very easy to for Kadaj to disarm Turv, Turv had only a moment to think, he ducked down tried to time it right. He kicked up as Kadaj passed over head, he was off time but it turned out better then planned. He was hoping to kick Kadaj in the stomach but he got him right in the balls.

Kadaj rolled to the floor and took a moment to lat the pain die away. A moment Turv would not let him have, Turv jumped at him and sliced to the side of Kadaj but once again Kadaj defended himself.

In fact Kadaj had spun around and deflected the blow with such force that it knocked the sword right out of Turv's hand. The blade flew away and was embedded to a tree. Turv was knocked back also, he leapt upwards and landed on the blade of his sword. As Kadaj flew after him Turv made a tiny jump off the blade, and in a millisecond pulled the blade free and kicked Kadaj square in the chest, Kadaj flew backwards and went through a tree that fell over and landed on him.

Turv got his feet back on the ground and took a breather before a white explosion freed Kadaj from under the tree.

**Gevaden: That's my latest chapter.** **I hope you like it, please review and tell me what you think of Kadaj. I was considering making him a permanent character, depending on your reviews I will or will not do so. **

**And to Locko, no it's send, E-mail them to me and I'll put them in. Review please!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Gevaden: another chapter! I think I'll answer a few things now.**

**Vvardenfell: It's Ryan's.**

**Sineari: That is exactly where I got him, I'm so unoriginal…cool movie though eh?**

**Necromancer and Sorcerer: That's fine, will you e-mail me his abilities just so I can be sure as to what he can and can't do?**

_Kingdoms will rise to power  
but kingdoms fall to dust_

_-Killswitch Engage_

Masakari reluctantly chased after his target, eventually the fellow stopped.

"Do you know who I am ninja?" asked the fellow.

"No, and I'm not sure if I particularly care. I must do what I must. It's nothing personal but a lot of people are depending of the success of what I'm doing." Masakari replied.

"Well perhaps you do not want to do this. Regardless, I hope you disappoint a lot of people. I am Esterian." Said the opponent with a confident toss of his head, pushing hair out of the way even if it barely reached his eyes. He took a stance and waited for Masakari to make his attack. Masakari drew his bow and fired an arrow at his opponent that was expecting melee combat. Regardless Esterian was more than capable of dodging the arrow. Masakari fired another and another, but Esterian dodged every one. Masakari put his bow away and leapt at Esterian a deadly kick but Esterian who was a large and well built man grabbed Masakari's leg and threw him at a tree. Masakari was able to use the tree he was flying at as a boost and he jumped straight back towards Esterian with a volley of kicks and punches.

Esterian took the blows rather well as he had a chance to brace himself for the attacks. He brought his fist down on Masakari from above with all the force of an Ogrim. Masakari was able to defend himself but the force still knocked him to the floor. He quickly made some distance between himself and Esterian.

He took and second to think and he knew what he had to do. He leapt at the incoming target and gave one well aimed punch before vaulting over him and giving a kick to the back, he then rolled to the side and gave another punch. He continued this method of hit and move for a time while it worked but eventually Esterian was able to predict Masakari's next move and responded with an uppercut that sent the ninja sprawling.

Masakari knew that he would beat his opponent through his speed and agility. He leapt to a high branch and swung around with his legs aiming for Esterian. The attack wasn't as successful as planned but it still knocked his opponent back a bit and but Masakari in a good position to press the attack. Before even landing Masakari was on Esterian again. He used Esterian as a platform and started boosting himself into the air. He was bouncing off Esterian for a while which got some success but Esterian eventually to just risk lowering his guard. He grabbed Masakari and threw him to the floor and then tumbled onto him.

The two broke apart quickly and Masakari jumped up and started to fire arrows down at Esterian who not only dodged them but also jumped after Masakari. The ninja tried to kick at Esterian as he got close but Esterian smashed the foot out of the way before grabbing Masakari in mid air. He thrust his knee into Masakari's gut and then hurled him at the thickest tree he could spot in the half second he had.

Masakari was not able to flip or twirl his way out of this one and his back slammed against the tree, breaking several branches as he was flying through the air. He landed in a heap.

He tried to get to his knees but before he could really get up Esterian performed an unexpected flying kick that smashed Masakari right back into the thick tree. Esterian decided to add insult to injury and he took Masakari's shortsword. He took a few steps back and waited for Masakari to get up.

Once he was up Masakari through back a quick potion that Aoku had made him a month ago when they left. He felt almost as good as new. Esterian started swinging the short sword at Masakari who took a little jump backwards to avoid each swing. Just as he was about to be forced up against the tree he vaulted over Esterian and kicked him into the tree. Esterian went face first into the tree and not shortly after he felt Masakari's back connect with his own and smash him into the tree again. Masakari made several attacks that basically just rammed Esterian into the tree and did minor damage to his foes back.

Esterian turned around at the first chance he got and tried to swipe at Masakari again but Masakari span around, grabbing Esterian's sword wrist. Masakari's back was pressed up against Esterian's chest. He forced Esterian's wrist to turn and drove the sword into his opponents stomach.

Esterian fell over into the snow and Masakari started the long walk back to where they had found the three fellows in the first place.

Back in Mournhold things were not going well. Rumours were spreading that scout forces were spotted a few miles out of the city. Whilst this did not do much good for most citizens it was most beneficial for Aoku who had set up a little potion selling shop, when people heard that there might be an assault they were desperate to get as many healing supplies as possible.

When Astelan caught up with his opponent he didn't get the chance to have a great or dramatic fight, as his opponent died of a heart attack.

**Gevaden: That's another chapter, I hope you liked it. Leave and review and tell me what you think. **


	21. Betrayal

**Gevaden: Hey folks, I was going to write about the three witches and that little adventure but it was really just a method of linking the fic up to a later point where some cool things will happen, so instead I'm going to summarise what happened as a diary entry by Vjad.**

_It would seem our quest to get the key to defeat the puppet master has been a blinding failure, it has taken us one full year to travel around to these witches and we come out with nothing but some cloaks. The first witch gave us nothing but a map to the second witch, when we got to her she was dead. _

_After searching her home we found a map to the third witch so we left to find him. He was an odd character but told us of the second witches ending. All he would tell us is that "she was killed by a murderer who lacked the power to kill me, and when you return to Almalexia's temple you shall find the murderer, the murderer is and always has been in league with the puppet master. The murderer must die." That's not a lot to go on but we hope getting to the temple shall clear everything up._

_The final witch did give us a gift to aid us in killing the murderer, dragon scale cloaks. They are heavy but they will protect us well._

_By this point Vvardenfell's child should have been born, I am eager to meet this little child of destiny. But our first order of business when we get back is to find the murderer, we have seen the power of these witches and it would take a being of enormous power to smote one. The final witch told us that he was the last, the third witch was killed a few months after we left her, horrible beings, I am glad that only one is left. Someday I hope someone will kill him._

_Even from here I can see the port where we dock in and end this horrible journey. I look to my comrades as I write this, our hair and beards have grown long and it is quite messy._

_We will dock in in about half an hour or so and this diary will be read by some friends, possibly end up being sold in an auction after I die, an piece of the war. Of course there isn't much large scale fighting going on, at least there wasn't when we left. Perhaps the war has ended, maybe hostility has ended. Who would be fighting now anyway? There is nobody left in Morrowind to oppose The Puppet Master, his daedric and vampire legions run around doing as they please. The Puppet Master would never make an assault on Mournhold, its suicide. It would take a very large army indeed to breach its walls. I certainly hope the war is at least at a stand still, I would love sometime to rest._

_Well I am finished with this diary or journal, what ever it should be called, it doesn't matter, I can get off this boat, eat some meat, drink some wine, sleep in a comfortable bed, and get a fresh set of clothes. _

_So until the next time that I will need to write about the events of my life. _

_Good bye journal_

Vjad placed the journal in a bag and got ready to get off the boat. Everyone was ready to get home and rest. As they approached the port they spotted three people running out of a passage at the bottom of a tower, that wasn't there when they left. When the ship docked in everybody hopped off and the three people approached them.

"We must be quick, there is an assault coming." Said one of the three.

"What?" said many of the group.

"Mournhold has been assaulted on numerous occasions, lots of small assaults. Never penetrating the city, never doing much damage. By most standards the invasion parties are just large scouting teams." Continued the escort before ushering them back to the city.

There was some guards protecting the entrance but the sight of the escort instantly got them passage into the city. By the time they reached the city the assault was over so they rushed straight to the Temple. As they moved through the city they noticed many little changes, some buildings had a new lick of paint, or a new floor or an extension so on so on.

As they moved along they bumped into Shardae and Moonstar.

"You've returned!" screamed Shardae after a moment. She started to hug everyone of them whilst Moonstar shook their hands.

"We must rush to the temple, there is some murderer there, Almalexia might be in danger." Said Sabre.

"What? Then let us run!" Moonstar said as he let the rush to the temple.

They burst into the temple which had gone under many renovations including many corridors and second floor. They continued to barge through doors and past people until they made it to Almalexia's domain.

They found the lady of mercy in a fight against someone with thick icy purple armour and long white hair that had a slight icy blue look to it. They couldn't his or her face as it had its back turned to them.

"My Lady!" cried Moonstar as he started to draw his sword.

"No my child this foe is above you!" she said as she parried an attack. The opponent leapt over her, she quickly turned and pressed the assault. Everyone could see the attackers face now. It was a face full of rage, and even though his skin itself was an icy blue colour and clearly he was cold, they could see a red hot heat emanating from his eyes. It was Ryan.

The two clashed, parrying and avoiding each others attacks with deadly force. But in the split moment Almalexia took to prepare a spell Ryan drove his sword through her stomach and then tore it out of her divine being.

Everyone took a gasp bar Moonstar who gave a scream before rushing at Ryan with his sword drawn. He swung and Ryan's neck shouting various promises of death and misery.

But his skills with a sword were blinded and he wasn't thinking his attacks through. Ryan grabbed his sword arm, twisted it back before kicking him across the room.

"You are the murderer." Said Gratis to Ryan as Vvardenfell entered the room.

"What!" asked Ryan.

"You killed the witches, and just as we were told we return here only to find you killing another! But not just anyone, you're here finishing off the job you failed so long ago. Killing a goddess!" continued Gratis.

"Brother you know this is not true! The lady was aiding The Puppet Master." pleaded Ryan.

"You lie!" shouted Gratis as he pulled himself up and ran at Ryan again, he didn't even bother pick up his sword, he just ran at Ryan planning to pound him to death. He struck Ryan across the face and as he was about to strike him again Ryan raised his arms in defense before ramming into Moonstar who stumbled backwards.

"By order of the empire, I order for your arrest!" Gratis choked out, unsure if he could believe what he was seeing, never mind what he was ordering.

"You don't have the power." Ryan responded..

"Yes I do brother, yes I do." Finished Gratis. Ryan looked at his good friends, hoping for a reassuring face, he looked to Vjad, Tanis and Masakari. None could look him in the eye, they were confused and ashamed.

"We want to help you, just come with us." Tanis pleaded.

Ryan started to step back, his eyes made a quick glance towards the exit and that was all the others needed, they started to make an advance, it was insanity to let someone as powerful as Ryan to continue what ever his plan was. Everyone in the group that could fired a spell of some sort at Ryan; the result was a large explosion of fire, poison, ice, lightning and others. When the dust had settled Ryan was still standing their, hands extended with a magicka shield around him, it faded away and Tanis jumped in. Ryan grabbed his Tanis's fist that was coming at him; he forced it back and delivered an uppercut to Tanis's chin. Ryan had jumped to increase the force of his jump and as he was about half way to the ceiling someone shot at him and rammed into him, pushing him into the wall with quite some force. Ryan felt him back ram into the wall before he was twisted around and thrown to the floor. Ryan crashed to the floor before stumbling up, Ryan got one quick glance at Vvardenfell, his love.

She could not believe that this was her Ryan, everything about him was different, his bluish skin, his white hair and he had killed Almalexia. She was shaken and could not watch anymore, she turned around and ran. Ran to her child that was currently being looked after by Tricia.

It was this that pushed Ryan to really fight back against those who would arrest him. He drew his sword but didn't get the chance to use it as a disintegrate spell hit it and destroyed it, it had already been damaged during the fight with the goddess and the spell turned it to dust. He resorted to his fists and used hand to hand combat. He was pushed to his very limits to hold off his attackers, he was lucky that Gratis was just standing in place, shocked at what his brother had done. But when Gratis fought for the tribunal he used his mace, a legendary and evil weapon that gave extreme power to it's user but also corrupted them in horrible ways. Ryan and Marius helped him fight the maces control. Gratis intended to help his brother, but he was too shocked to help in his arrest.

Gratis watched as tried to take down Ryan only for him to punch, kick or throw them away from him.

Ryan leapt up into the air and they all tried to get him whilst he was elevated. Everyone grabbed him in mid-air and tried to pull him down but with his waning strength he was able to give an explosion of telepathic power to blow them all around the room. As Ryan landed on the floor he felt to fists hit him in the chest with deadly force. Ryan was blown back and he hit the wall, he fell down, his breastplate shattered. When he looked up it was Gratis that had delivered the deadly double punch. Gratis hadn't even changed from the stance, he was still slanted over with his two fists extended. He slowly went back into his position, everybody went to Gratis's side.

"Someone please, arrest him, I don't think I can." He said, and then he left. Masakari went to arrest the man that for many years was his closest friend, his comrade. But as he approached him somebody leapt in Ryan's defense, the person had been invisible the whole time but now revealed himself. It was a redguard, with a patch over one eye.

"Isude?" asked Masakari. He got no verbal response, the redguard just pulled out six darts and fired them at the floor in front of Masakari, they exploded in a similar fashion as when the spells were shot at Ryan, but this time when the dust settled Ryan and Isude were gone.

**Gevaden: Shock! horror! What the devil is going on!**


	22. Speaking with Aoku

**Gevaden: Another chapter! I hope your enjoying the fic! If you notice any mistakes or have any suggestions please say so in a review.**

**It had been a few days since Ryan assassinated Almalexia; the city was mourning the loss. Moonstar had not been seen since that day, he had hidden in his domain and had yet to come out.**

Vjad, Masakari and Gratis were looking over the events of the fight. They had gone over it again and again and could not make a conclusion.

"So it could be him, but it could be him under some kind of spell." Gratis said with a disappointed tone.

"Yeah that's about it." Vjad replied.

"Have the patrols found any signs of him." Continued Masakari.

"Nope, he just disappeared." Gratis answered.

"He could have flown away." Vjad pointed out. They kept discussing it and came to several theories, none of which were completely viable.

Meanwhile someone was coming across Ryan and Isude, possibly the only person who could and would help him.

She approached two people at a camp fire, one of them seemed injured.

"Can I help you two?" she asked, here a few miles out into the wilderness around Mournhold. Isude looked up to see her, unsure of her reaction. Ryan turned to see her. Isude looked to Ryan, waiting for a signal of what to do.

"We can trust her." Ryan whispered.

"Aoku, how are you? Ryan asked.

"Ryan?" she asked before realizing that it was indeed him. She ran over to join the two.

"Where have you two been?" she asked.

"North, very far north." Ryan answered.

"Why, why did you go there?" she asked.

"I had some inner demons to take care of, that and I was turning into a vampire and nowhere in could take care of it anymore." Ryan replied.

"And it's taken you this long?" she asked.

"We arrived where Ryan had intended for us to go, and they had a cure but wanted our help. We had to help them fight a war of their own against an amazing breed of orc. It wasn't much of a problem, if we could take out the orc champion they would fall." Isude said.

"What kind of amazing?" she asked.

"They were bigger, about a foot bigger much more feral but very adaptive and talented at constructing weapons, armor and even modes of transport from bits of loot and junk they got from raiding villages. They're champion was a complete nutter. Gor'ash the betrayer I think his name was, regardless this guy used to run onto the battlefield with an axe and start decapitating people left, right and centre. He would force his soldiers to fight or face death, one thing we saw was, now you must remember it is very cold up there, especially at night, you will die if you don't get in doors. Well his soldiers refused to fight as night came in so he burned down his soldier's shelter, forcing them to attack a native village to take their shelter." Isude told.

"He sounds dangerous."

"Very, well anyway, Ryan, Sparhawk and I managed to kill him…"

"We think." Interrupted Ryan.

"Yes we think." Isude continued.

"You think?" Aoku asked.

"He has a tendency to resurrect." Ryan informed, as he had learned it the hard way.

"Yeah, he earned the favor of some orcish god." Isude explained.

"Well eventually Sparhawk managed to rip his heart out and he didn't get up after a while so we have our fingers crossed. But it turned out that another prophecy was beginning, the natives had a prophecy known as the three travelers, and after we defeated the orcs we proved that we were the three in question. So we went under many tasks, and in time it was discovered who had what places in the prophecy, I lost my eye which meant I was supposed to aid The Frozen King, of course we didn't know who The Frozen King was, it was either Ryan or Sparhawk, another part of the prophecy said that two would attempt to become The Frozen King, one would achieve this and the other would achieve immortality. There was a task that would determine who got what." Isude continued.

"What was it?" Aoku asked.

"They had to climb a mountain and reach the cave on top. Ryan and Sparhawk ran up as quickly as they could and reached the top in three hours, as they tied at the top, they had to fight to the death. After a devastating fight Ryan was the victor. He was about to bury the body went a man named Eldinflame told him not to, it would just make resurrecting him harder. Eldinflame is a very powerful being indeed; wielding the shadows themselves like a regular man would wield a sword. He has a brilliant mind." Isude explained.

"Total psycho." Ryan pointed out.

"Yes, certainly a psychopath but brilliant nonetheless. Very important to the people of the island, plays the role of a shaman but he's nothing like one."

Aoku listened intently.

"Well eventually he tells me that that if I go to Vivec I will find out what's going on, so I do. And I overheard Almalexia speaking with The Puppet Master, I couldn't hear them completely but of what I did hear the two had been in league for a long time, decades in fact. But basically they know were going to slice up everything between themselves before pressing an invasion against the rest of the world. They want everything." Ryan told.

"I don't believe it." Aoku responded.

"It's the truth, and its why I had to kill Almalexia, I'm not strong enough to fight The Puppet Master, not yet. But soon." He continued.

The three kept speaking for a while until Aoku noticed Ryan's injuries, she healed him and the two left. Promising to return for good in a few months.

Aoku went back to the city and told Vjad and Gratis everything.

"Aoku, we know that you are fond of Ryan and that he has been good to you since this war began. But he has been tainted by some horrible evil, by your account he admitted to being in the presence of a very powerful psychopath. You must realize that he is lying." Gratis said.

"I'm not so sure." She responded.

"We would love to believe that he has returned with a righteous mission to free Morrowind from The Puppet Master, but if he had these plans and knew what he claims he would have seeked us out, seeked out his love. He is lost and until we can arrest him and help him it is useless. He was one of my best friends, it is hard to admit it but has been tainted."

"Perhaps." She said, what they said was logical and rational. She was confused, which should we trust, her friends, or someone who had been so kind to her, although had disappeared for a year, came back looking different and killed a goddess with a rather impressive story. It was a no brainer really…but still.

"There is one more thing he told me." She added.

"Yes?" Vjad responded.

"The Puppet Master is building something, a weapon. A giant Dwarven weapon. Ryan saw it when he eavesdropped on Almalexia and The Puppet Master."

"This might be something to worry about."

Ryan and Isude got back to their frozen island a few weeks later. Ryan barged through the doors to Eldinflame.

"Eldinflame! Everything happen exactly as you predicted!" Ryan said walking up to Eldinflame who stood at a strange alter, standing next to a ghostly image of Sparhawk and then there was Shindra.

"What's she doing here?" Ryan asked looking at Shindra.

"What's he doing here?" Shindra asked looking at Ryan.

"I'll take it my elite general and my spy know each other. But regardless, Ryan do you still want to press on with the plans? Even after everyone betrayed you." Eldinflame said.

"Of course." Ryan said, his words were dripping of a hateful resolve.

"Excellent. Bring in the helmet!" ordered Eldinflame. A hooded figure brought in a icy dark blue helmet, it had a crown of small spikes and revealed little of its wearers face, the centre of the mouth and the eyes.

"This is the Helmet of Drak'thu'olbong'dastre'mong. A very ancient and very powerful god. Its power will make you strong enough to kill anyone who tries to stop us. But I warn you, when you put it on there will be a test, it will try and break your mind. You will have to tame it for lack of a better explanation." Eldinflame warned.

Ryan took no heed; he slowly placed the helmet on his head. Soon after a pure white light broke through from his eyes. A pure white hot pain shot through Ryan's body, he fell to his knee's and started screaming. It was raping his mind, he could feel it clawing its way to what ever it was looking for.

"What's wrong? Can't the big bad Ryan handle it?" Shindra goaded.

"Shindra, be quiet, it is a pain that you certainly would not be able to handle. Know go back to Mournhold and find out what you can." Eldinflame ordered, caring little that his spy had spent a month getting here to report, know she had to go back.

**Gevaden: another chapter! How will things turn out? What the hell is up with the name of that helmet? **


	23. Earning your life

**Gevaden: Another chapter! You know what to do by now, review, tell what you do and don't like, who you do and don't like and general comments on characters and events. Perhaps leave a comment on the great betrayal.**

Everyone sat around, enjoying a day off. Life was becoming more and more stressful; it seemed that anyone who had any grudge against the empire was taking a chance at bringing them down. There were skirmishes going on everywhere. And of course our heroes were being sent back and forth protecting places, liberating taken land, defeating generals who had gone crazy after finding some artefact of power.

"Open the gates!" shouted a soldier that was station on the gates.

Ershedro couldn't help but look at group that was coming, the soldier sounded very excited. Ershedro got some of the others that had been enjoying the market with him and they joined a large crowd of people who seemed to be celebrating the arrival of the group.

Ershedro finally got a look at who it was, in rows of six; Ordinators were marching into the city.

Moonstar could be seen welcoming the man that seemed to be leading them, an Ordinators whose armour looked slightly more important then the others.

"There must be hundreds of them." Vjad commented to Sabre.

"At least." Sabre replied.

There was a celebration in the castle of Mournhold that night. Ershedro asked Moonstar about the arrival whilst at the party.

"They are the survivors from Morrowind; they had no aid in getting here. They had to run, swim and generally make their own way here. And they shall be the bulk of the army that begins the invasion to take back Morrowind that leaves in a week." Moonstar told.

"Will you be accompanying them?" Shardae asked.

"Of course, which brings me to my next matter to deal with. The King has asked me to ask you to come with me. We need the very best out there, we all need to go. The king is offering a very generous amount if we leave."

Everyone took a breathe and started speaking.

"Jaros left a month ago; he barely waited after we got back. He's checking the damage done to Solstheim." Moonstar added.

"I have a child to raise, I can't." Vvardenfell said remorsefully.

"I know you have a child now, but we still need you out there, we need everyone."

The conversation didn't go on much longer. But it put a stamp on the whole night. The same questions were running through everyone's mind.

"_Its much safer here, do I want to risk it back there?"_

"_What about the Puppet Master?"_

"_What if Ryan and Isude return here?"_

"_Can Morrowind even be saved?"_

And things to that general effect. A few days before the army left, everyone knew that they had to go and informed Moonstar, Moonstar was delighted but mainly surprised that _everyone _decided to join him, he was expecting a few people perhaps, but not everyone. Vvardenfell joining him was the biggest surprise. It was an odd coincidence that everyone signed up on the same day. A very odd coincidence.

And thus the boats set sail for Seeyda Neen. They arrived without any problems and found that the little village was almost the same. The shop had been burnt down but other then that there were only a few little changes.

But of course this wasn't were they were planning to stay, there wasn't nearly enough accommodation. Balmora was the target.

The thought of another large battle in Balmora sent a shiver of dread through the spines of most people present, the Ordinators, the imperial soldiers and of course our heroes and heroines.

They took a little while to gather there strength and recuperate. Then they made the march to Balmora, under the cover of night.

The group snuck into the town first, they started an assault after working there way in and taking out various monsters and demons that looked like more senior members of the occupying force.

The city fell quietly and easily, things went remarkably well. Sabre even found a letter addressed to The Puppet Master saying that everything was okay and he would send a letter in a week, earlier if something noteworthy happened.

Meanwhile a dark robed Vvardenfell was sending her friend and agent on a mission.

"Go north, go after him. When you find him, just watch. Unless you seen that he has truly fallen to evil ways should you even attempt to take him out. And remember Ryan is very powerful, a head on assault would be stupid." Vvardenfell instructed.

"Of course, I'll be back as soon as I can." Said the agent, the two shared a hug and then she was gone. Disappearing into the darkness.

The agent found Ryan quite quickly, once she was in the general area where he was she only had to hear a few stories of the islands champion to know that she had found him. Problem was he was on the move, with a powerful dark wizard. The two were travelling slightly east to end a war that had been going on for the last forty years, the war was in truth over years ago. Now there were just small skirmishes once every few months. But Eldinflame had decided to finally end it and challenged the rival king to a contest, they would pit their champions in combat. Winner takes all.

The agent followed this frozen lands champions to the small country of Kralee.

She watched from the roof as the throne room of Kralee was full of warriors fighting it out.

Ryan looked from under his helmet, the name of which he didn't even attempt to learn off.

Ryan looked at eleven of the twelve champions Eldinflame had selected, they were fighting eleven others, selected by king Juminos.

"This is the finest you could muster? These are your champions?" Ryan asked Eldinflame who stood next to him.

"Don't be stupid Ryan, these are just riff raff to wear down the opposition until you decide to step in. You are my champion." Eldinflame replied. As he said this a warrior ran at Ryan. This one was a martial artist of sorts, they all were. Regardless he tried to punch Ryan in the face. Ryan was far more then fast enough to catch the incoming fist and force it backwards.

The warrior felt his hand wrenched backwards and fell to his knees, once Ryan was satisfied that this warrior had learned his lesson he gave him a sharp knee to the face, knocking him out for the count.

"This is pitiful, end it will you Ryan. And as a test of loyalty take the kings head would you?" Eldinflame asked.

"Take this, I don't need it yet." Ryan said as he handed Eldinflame his helmet.

Ryan started to walk towards the king, as he did the kings champions broke off from the fight they were involved in went to intercept Ryan. Each one ran at Ryan and each one was quickly disposed of in a effect yet non lethal manner, weather it be a quick smash of the back of his fists covered in his mystical plate armour or a knee to the stomach before being thrown away.

The king looked at Ryan with contempt and quickly drew to swords and leapt at Ryan. The king was far more talented then any of his champions that Ryan had defeated but was still far from being on par with Ryan. After a short fight the king new that he was outmatched.

He lay panned out on the floor, chest down. He extended a hand in the direction of a nearby doorway in a manner that seemed to plead for help to some unseen force, who quickly made himself seen.

The figure that immerged was taller then the doorway itself. As he got out he gave a large stretch before walking towards Ryan. As Ryan was Eldinflame's twelfth champion and a far superior fighter then his fellow champions, this character seemed to be the same thing. He was of no specie that Ryan recognised. He just about cleared eight feet and his most noticeable feature was his four arms.

It walked towards Ryan and defeated each of Eldinflame's champions in a fashion similar. Although this beast of a being took more time to each warrior and truly displayed his power, he managed to throw fighters across the room with ease, noting the room they inhabited was an easy fifty feet. He pounded warriors in various fashion and eventually reached Ryan…it hadn't broken a sweat.

There fight involved several bouts of sorts. In the sense that the two would fight for a while until one was tired and needed a few moments to recuperate which the other was more then happy to allow. The first of these bouts had this giant creature as its victor. The rest were very touch and go.

Ryan refused to use his sword for the fight, Ryan would easily have won with his sword. But he had more respect for his opponent. He would rely on his fists and feet for this.

Ryan ran at the creature and leapt at it with his feet extended, he hit the creature dead centre of the chest and whilst the attack had some minor effect on the foe it was capable of grabbing Ryan by the arms, two of its giant hands held him elevated in place whilst the other two pounded Ryan into the face until it got bored and threw Ryan to floor.

Ryan hit the floor hard, he took a deep breather and jumped to his feet and started punching his opponent into the chest with all the force he could muster, and once in a while a fist would venture to the beasts face. The creature was stunned for a moment but was recovered in time to give Ryan a well aimed punch to the face. Ryan stumbled backwards a bit.

_I've got to end this soon, I don't have much left in me._

Ryan punched the beast right in the groin, it bent over and grabbed at its bits in the expected manner. Ryan grabbed it by the waist and started to lift it up, it caused great strain on the already weakened warrior but Ryan managed to get the creature up and flipped it right onto the floor. It left a big crack in the floor. Ryan grabbed it and started dragging it across the floor. Again giving all the strength he could Ryan swung it into a pillar.

The pillar gave in and the heavy stone it was built from collapsed onto the beast.

Ryan stumbled towards Eldinflame before dropping to his knees for a breather.

But the creature wasn't done yet, it stood got up from the pile of rubble. It ran at Ryan with an fist prepared for a devastating punch that would end the fight. Ryan was full of rage, he had given his everything and this creature still came at him. This rage gave Ryan the strength he needed to grab the creature by the fist that was about to punch him and flip the creature over a shoulder and slam it to the floor again. It spent a second on the floor before turning onto its hands and knees trying to crawl up. Ryan leapt into the air and came down on the creature, stomping it to the floor. He then flipped the creature onto its back and started punching it into the face. He punched again and again until he though he was about to fall over in exhaustion. Ryan stayed where he was for a while, one foot on the floor, one knee on this monsters chest and his hands to the floor beside the creatures head, keeping him up.

The creature lifted its head a few inches from the floor and Ryan started punching again.

This time Ryan really had nothing left, he got up and walked a few steps towards Eldinflame, lacking the strength to finish the short walk from where he was to Eldinflame he collapsed.

"Get up, get up and kill that abomination!" ordered Eldinflame.

Ryan looked up and murmured.

"Do it yourself."

"I have you to perform my killings." Eldinflame shouted as he waved his hand and cast a spell at Ryan. The spell rejuvenated Ryan who got up and brushed himself down.

"Kill him! The king has fled and you did not get me his head! Now you refuse to get me this creatures head! Why do you fail me?" Eldinflame asked.

"You have your kingdom! This warrior has earned his life with this fight. Leave me alone." Ryan grabbed the helmet and left.

"I should destroy you, but I still need you." Eldinflame whispered to himself.

The agent, watching all this time retreated to the darkness and fled.

**Gevaden: Another chapter! The four armed warrior was a tribute to one of my favourite characters ever Prince Goro, who might play a larger part and who might not. Regardless please review and tell me what you think! **


	24. make or break

**Gevaden: Another chapter, I hope you enjoy. Again I ask for your reviews as it shows that my work is being appreciated, thus I but more effort into. I'd like to thanks those who are reviewing at least somewhat regularly and of course those rare stars that review very regularly. **

**I believe that some of my recent chapters, whilst they were entertaining (in my opinion at least) were after driving away from some other important parts of the fic. So I'm trying to get back to the way things were in older chapters. If any of you agree with this or have any comments on it please tell me. If you do think older chapters were made of a different stuff so to speak please tell me what you think has changed and which or what you prefer reading.**

The campaign in Morrowind was going wonderfully, whilst The Puppet Master was undoubtedly a powerful wielder of magicka and deadly warrior his ability to guide armies into real battles was lacking, it seemed that it would only be a matter of weeks before Vivec was taken and it would finally be over.

Then it came to a battle that could be the beginning of The Puppet Masters deadly counter strike. Not only had their opponent suddenly amassed a massive army of what looked like Dwarven machines, goblins and daedra but he had several respected generals from all around the world. Gratis and Vjad, who were doing most of the strategic work were confident in a victory, this was reinforced by a letter they received three days ago.

_To whomever does bring Morrowind to liberty_

_After the recent success's in Morrowind and what we expect will eventually be The Puppet Masters defeat, I Shindra, after giving council to our benevolent ruler have convinced him to send reinforcements of several thousand troops, but their shall be some special troops coming from the north that I am sure will crush The Puppet Masters already waning presence in Morrowind._

_Hopefully the aid you have been sent shall ensure your success. The regular reinforcements should arrive one day after this letter reaches you (presuming it is on time) and the special reinforcements should arrive in three days after this letter reaches you._

_With hopes of a free Morrowind,_

_Shindra_

_Council to the King_

This letter had arrived three days ago, and sure enough the expected troops had arrived two days ago, yet there was no sign of the special troops, although to be fair it was still very early in the day and if they do arrive from the north they'll have half the island to cross before they get here.

But fortune was smiling upon our adventurers, now generals. Masakari's mentor, a very wise and talented martial artist had come to aid his old student, in the few months they had been back in Morrowind he had taught deadly and lethal martial arts to anyone who he deemed worthy, which was those who had both proven themselves mentally and physically.

Gratis, Vjad, Shardae, Sabre, Ershedro, Astelan, Turv and Zebeyna looked out to where the battle that could be make or break for either faction would be fought. It was a long, wide grassy plain. It was once Red Mountain but it had all collapsed after Doguth Ur's defeat. Now the land was after recovering from the foul taint he had created.

"Are any of you scared?" asked Zebeyna.

"Scared? After everything we've been through already?" replied Ershedro.

"That's my point; we've walked away from battles that have seen thousands dead, time and time again. Often most of us wouldn't have anything more then a mild flesh wound. How many more can we walk away from?" She explained.

"When you put it like that, it makes it sound like someone or something is looking over us." Sabre added.

"Has there been any word from Jaros?" asked Turv.

"No, but it's only a matter of time before he returns, if there's a fight to be fought we can count on him." Replied Vjad.

"Ryan used to protect us…" Vvardenfell said, after approaching them from behind, her delayed statement and the look on her face showed that she was having a bad day, possibly thinking of the past, it was hard to forget sometimes. Her child, a young boy that had started to form small words recently was a constant reminder of Ryan. But she missed Ryan, not that frozen knight she saw in the temple of Almalexia.

"We better head back, the Ordinators will get restless." Shardae joked. They did head back and as the sun got high things started to happen. The Puppet Masters forces were coming with a thirst for blood.

Ordinators and Imperial troops lined up and prepared for a big fight. Moonstar had every intention of driving a lethal spearhead assault right into the centre of the enemy. The plan was to break the enemy formation and allow the other forces to destroy and weakened, shattered, and chaotic rabble of goblins and daedra.

Vjad and Gratis watched as Moonstar made his spearhead charge, the Ordinators following to what could become a mass suicide. Did Moonstar plan to become a Martyr, bring all these Ordinators with him, shatter The Puppet Masters power and all in the name of his dead goddess?

Vjad and Gratis were worrying this, they couldn't let him do it, not charge alone.

"Sabre, can you take out some of the enemy lines at the back or the centre a separate them a bit?" Gratis asked.

"Of course." Sabre replied before moving to his archer legions. He gave the order and arrows filled the sky, raining down on the enemy.

The Puppet Master was involved in the fighting this time, for now he was behind his troops, with two other generals and two advisors.

"Their coming at us with a spearhead charge, it could be a deadly blow. But I can charge them, break their charge." Said a large orc atop a kagouti. He led a ferocious army of kagouti riders, but these were not regular kagouti's. These were specially bread to be used in war, they were bigger, meaner and were adorned in heavy armour that protected their scales that were already very tough.

"Do it." The Puppet Master ordered from under his black hood. The orc gave a roar and started to ride. His troops heard his cry and knew what to do.

Moonstar could see what was happening.

"Catch them as they pass or they'll grind us to the floor." He shouted. Moonstar was still not to confident in his troops chances but continued to charge at the enemy that was bounding at them. But as the two groups were about to crash against each other fire rained on the kagouti riders. Moonstar paused for the slightest moment and looked up. Astelan was raining down all the fire he could and he was not alone, many troops of a more exotic variety were behind him and above him, in the air.

Moonstar saw a kagouti right in front of him, he jumped to the side and drove his scimitar into its side as it passed. He did this several times as they passed, glancing back to the Ordinators to see if they were doing it too. Some were, some were being smashed by the enemy.

Vjad was getting any riders that made it through, some escaped his troops but most were taken down.

Gratis was bringing Imperial troops around for a flank. Before his flank could get the enemy he noticed that a different flank was in operation. Various thrown weapons were hitting the enemy from the opposite side, the attackers hidden in the forestry nearby.

When the enemy realised this hidden attack they went into the forests to hunt down the attackers. Few could see what was going on in the forest but nobody emerged. Eventually the darts and arrows started coming again.

"BURN THE WOODS!" A general screamed. Flaming arrows were fired at the woods which forced out the mystery attackers, Ninja's. Lots of Ninja's.

"The Ninja clans…" murmured many across the battle. Masakari and his mentor, Master Tsung. Daedra pounded after the Ninja who were more then ready. Gratis's flank was crashing into the sides of the enemy.

All imperial troops were now marching into the enemy, spread out to force as much of the enemy into battle, wearing them down…praying that the special reinforcements would arrive.

Ershedro found himself up close with the goblins, he relished in the chance to smash these filthy beasts. Whilst his skill as a warrior allowed him to kill these cretins with ease the troops at his back were not so sure of there ability. The ferocity of these goblins was something that the imperial troops were not quite used to.

Vjad was up with Moonstar fighting against the thickest mass of enemy. The Ordinators were proving to be an invaluable weapon against the enemy, but since they arrived there numbers had been thinned significantly.

Zebeyna was trying to fight through to Vjad and Moonstar, she remembered when she travelled with him and fought with him. Those days were good, they fought well together.

Astelan was now on the ground and with his poison dagger in hand he was tearing at the enemy, it was a gritty and feral fight for him. His troops were holding up but a lot of people were being forced into very close proximity and it was making things awkward and difficult.

Sabre's archers had done all they could, arrows were too risky now as the legions had crashed together in the fray. They waited; a chance might still come to strike from there well chosen position that gave an excellent advantage.

But now The Puppet Master was getting into the fighting personally. Something he hadn't done in quite some time. He didn't come alone, he had his personal bodyguard with him, they were his most deadly of creations, and they could survive deadly blows and keep going.

The Puppet Master pushed his way through the troops and got stuck in, a colossal claymore in his hands, he cleaved through his foe's. Once in awhile using a spell for some wicked reason.

Meanwhile up at the north end of the island, two scouts were waiting for the special reinforcements. They spotted many ships arriving, including one truly massive ship that surely could have carries several thousand men on its own.

"I don't like the look of these guys." One of the scouts said to another.

"Me neither, but there is a lot of them." Replied the other.

Soon they could see the leader of these forces, the sight chilled them right to the bone.

"Oh shite! It's him! Run back to the others and warn them." Said the first scout. The other didn't argue.

**Gevaden: That's another one finished, please review.**


	25. Make or break prt II

**Gevaden: Another chapter! I hope you're still enjoying the fic, if you are please tell me, it only takes a moment to review, regardless here's the new chapter. (Don't worry Vvardenfell, it'll explain the whereabouts of herself in this chapter, it all makes sense.)**

Vjad and Gratis had pulled out of the fighting for a moment to look at the situation, The Puppet Master's forces were being attacked from three sides but they were fighting far more ferociously then anyone could have expected. Before anyone had noticed what was happened the imperial army was spread rather thin against an army that was replacing every fallen soldier with one that was back in the lines waiting to join the scrap.

Gratis and Vjad was approached by his two scouts that had been waiting for the special reinforcements.

"What's the report?" asked Vjad.

"The special reinforcements…are led by Ryan!" The very exhausted scout informed.

"Oh shit…" Gratis replied.

"Why do I have the feeling we're in a spot of trouble." Gratis said.

"How long until they get here?" asked Gratis.

"Not long, they'll be in view from here in a few minutes, half an hour at most." The scout informed whilst pointing where they'd be coming from.

Without warning what looked like a shooting star smashed into the battlefield, instantly killing dozens, possibly several hundred of the enemy forces. Everyone was at a stand still whilst the smoke cleared. When the smoke had cleared it revealed a large crater and in the centre…The Frozen King himself. Ryan had returned to Vvardenfell with an army which could now be seen charging at The Puppet Master's forces.

"Why do I get the feeling he's not the lightning monarch or master of lightning anymore?" asked Vjad.

"This is the final evidence I need to believe that the Ryan we knew and loved is dead. This thing in his image worships nothing that Ryan did. It is a spectre in a shell that resembles my brother. I will gladly lock him away in some forbidden chamber far underground." Replied Gratis.

"Why not kill him?" asked Vjad.

"It's easier to resurrect someone then break them free from the prison I have in mind." Gratis had taken up a position as a sort of grand jailor who dealt with criminals of an extreme calibre, it would take far more then your average daedric claymore wielding mass slaughter maniac type person who attract his attention, and he had come across some rather dreadful prisons indeed.

Some troops ran at Ryan but they were quickly cut down by a flurry of quick steps and quicker hands movements that brought his sword to their chests.

"I'll deal wit him personally!" The Puppet Master said to his general's. One general wanted the glory of killing of the famous Ryan and charged ahead of the ever confident Puppet Master. As the over sized orc got close to Ryan a non-corporeal being suddenly sprang from The Frozen King. It was Sparhawk, or at least some kind of ghost version. Regardless it flew past the orc general and took a semi-corporeal state which allowed him to easily strike it down with one simple swipe to it's side.

Three other soldiers met there end to some invisible attacker, who slaughtered them in a very grim fashion which put off the other troops a bit. The attacker slowly came into view, it was Isude.

The arrival of these three and the fashion as to which they appeared was very frightening and destroyed the moral of more then a few soldiers.

Back in Balmora…

Someone, of course had to stay and keep safe the city should enemy forces break through. The first person to sign up was Vvardenfell, not only did this let her stay back and protect her child it also meant she might not end up being killed on the battlefield, leaving this child an orphan. Ryan wasn't getting anywhere near this child.

Vvardenfell looked out the door, soldiers everywhere. Marching up and down, left and right.

Back at the battlefield Gratis and Vjad were still over looking things. Looks like Ryan's forces, which were getting very stuck in and dealing some dangerous blows to the enemy where needed.

"If we do this right, we can take out the Puppet Master and Ryan with one move." Vjad pointed out.

"I know, we must be careful." Gratis responded.

"Unless of course they destroy each other!" Vjad exclaimed as he pointed to glints of some alien metal clashing in the distance. The way the two characters darted around at rates that were just downright impossible to that of the average man. But everything was like that with the group. Everyone in the group could do things that no regular man could dream of doing. They were faster, stronger, better at Magicka, the works. Vjad secretly had a theory that being present at the death of Almalexia might have had something to do with it; he thought that perhaps when she was killed her body leaked some magical energy that they absorbed, making them increase in power of a period of time. But if that was true, then one would imagine that such a process would happen to the other members of the tribunal, which meant that Ryan would have benefited from both Almalexia and Sotha Sil. Which mean he's more dangerous then expected.

Down in the battlefield the carnage was getting worse. Ershedro was spinning around his two longs, swiping at anyone that was close enough, slicing off limbs and all sorts of things. Standing quite close to him was his constant friend Sabre. His demon longbow in hand he was firing arrows at various opponents, killing them all with his deadly shots. He was quite proud of a shot he got; he killed a man in mid air, the said individual was jumped up to bring down his spear on an ordinator that wasn't looking. As the spear man was in the air an arrow slid through his chest, in between two ribs.

Masakari was darting around stabbing and kicking any foe he could, but he was a ninja and not designed for open battles like this. He of course was throwing around the enemy with all the martial art skills he had been taught and that was a lot but he was getting tired.

Turv was walking through the area slicing and killing, trying to make an impression. He wanted everyone to see him and cower at his presence. And indeed he was making an impression; he grabbed a soldier that got in his way. He drove his sword through the soldier's back before kicking him off the blade and then carrying on.

"Should we get down there?" asked Vjad.

"Not just yet, look." Gratis responded, pointing to the two figures in the distance, Ryan and The Puppet Master. They were so wrapped in up in their own fight that they didn't realise the fact that they had moved quiet a bit away from the battle itself. It was impressive to watch the two tiny figures jumping, bouncing and generally darting at one another, they'd launch at one another in a manner that made it difficult to tell if they were jumping or flying, then one would dive to the side, then Gratis and Vjad could see that glint you see when swords meet, after a little while of clashing swords one would knock the other back quite a distance and the process would start all over.

"Who do you think will win?" asked Vjad.

"Hard to say, The Puppet Master is very powerful and has gone toe to toe with Ryan and others at the same time. But that was a year ago. Ryan certainly has a different style in combat now, he's dropped the style and fancy moves he used to do, everything he's doing now seems to be more for the sake of just getting the job done." Explained Gratis.

"Another thing this person differs from the old Ryan, fighting style." Vjad pointed out.

"True."

"Look down there!" Vjad said as he pointed to several dozen of The Puppet Master's soldiers that had broken through the imperial ranks and where heading towards Balmora.

"We'll let the city patrol sort them out, give Vvardenfell some entertainment; she hasn't had a good scrap in ages." Gratis pointed out. Vjad laughed in agreement.

"Let's join the fray."

"Indeed."

The two gave a leap and floated down to the battlefield.

Vvardenfell was in her house, the little one was asleep, young Magnus, named after his father's deity.

She stared at him, her perfect little boy. Suddenly there was a frantic knock at the door. Vvardenfell quickly answered the door encase it would wake up the child. It was soldier who wanted to tell her that some of the enemy was coming towards the town.

Vvardenfell already had most of her gear on, she put on her gloves and helmet, grabbed her sword and made for the enemy.

She passed the soldiers that were getting ready for a fight…pointlessly. She was going to enjoy this.

When she was in front of all the soldiers, she pointed her sword at them.

"This fights mine; you can have what I leave." She ordered then walked very calmly towards the charging enemy.

Two of the big ugly attackers sprinted ahead of the group and charged Vvardenfell; she got a rushing jump at one of them. She grabbed him by the collar before kicking off him and launching herself at the other. She embedded her sword right between his neck and shoulder. The one she had kicked off came at her from behind, she ducked down and swiped her sword over her head which cut his chest wide open.

The two dropped dead.

Several more came at her. With a flick of her wrist a spell crashed in between the lot of them and they were forced to stand still, paralysed. She walked up to them and started swinging her sword about, decapitating and generally killing them.

Two others fired an arrow each at her, she dodged one and caught the other, throwing it to the floor in an intimidating manner. The two closed in but she quickly sliced them down.

One nearly got a sneaky blow at her from behind but she heard him at the last second, she bent over to avoid the attack before giving a fancy jumping twirl behind him, rising up as she moved. She drove her sword through his back and tore it out.

There was still several dozen left, she hadn't even broken a sweat.

Masakari stood in the middle of the anarchy; with a quick spell he was invisible. He took a moment to get himself together and check his surroundings. He became visible again and but his weapons away. He took a calming stance he had learnt years ago.

One unlucky warrior tried to attack and earned a flurry of punches for his efforts, he was then thrown at several of his comrades.

Several of the enemy soldiers took special notice of Masakari who ushered them to attack him. They ran to the challenge and as soon as they were in reach Masakari broke out with heavy stuff, the martial arts that stories are written about. Masakari was constantly hitting more then one person with every body movement, every blow put him in position to another, his punches were opening his foe to another punch, his kicks were striking enemies at his rear or finishing off the enemy in front.

When most of them had been taken out he cart wheeled at one opponent before twisting his way into defeating the rest. He had to pull out, he had tired himself out. He became invisible again and jumped to safety for awhile.

Ryan could see the battlefield from where he was, it was behind him right now but he had to keep his eye on the Puppet Master who was in front of him.

They had been fighting for awhile now and there probably wasn't much left in the fight.

The Puppet Master was pacing up and down watching Ryan intently. Suddenly the two sprung into action, Ryan brought his sword up for a rising swipe but The Puppet Master parried before striking with a swipe which Ryan parried but before he could go back to the offensive his opponent twisted the sword up and started hammering blows, from up and down low, from left to right and occasionally stabbing. Ryan could defend himself but couldn't break into the offensive.

Whilst Ryan was parrying a blow he suddenly pushed forward, slightly knocking The Puppet Master of balance which gave him the chance to strike. He brought his sword down but The Puppet Master blocked, they were stuck in a grapple of sorts for a moment. Ryan was pressing The Puppet Master down, as The Puppet Masters back was about to give way he pushed against Ryan and then swung with all his might. Ryan was blown into the air; he went up quite far, twenty or thirty feet. Ryan was half blown up and he half carried himself up. The Puppet Master was about to fly after Ryan but suddenly Ryan came plummeting down with all the force he could muster.

The Puppet Master gave a cocky grin a held his sword up in a secure manner, Ryan crashed down onto it, swords locked again, the floor around them shattered, their eyes filled with hatred for one another.

The Puppet Master blew Ryan away again. This time more his power then Ryan carrying himself. But Ryan had spotted his chance for victory, his rival's sword was going to break within the next few blows.

The Puppet Master dashed up to Ryan and the two exchanged blows before going back to ground. The Puppet Master ran to Ryan's side and hammered down more blows. Ryan swung with all the might his left hand allowed him to and shattered The Puppet Master's sword, Ryan's right hand was generating a spell. Ryan punched The Puppet Master into the gut, also hitting him with a powerful ice spell.

The Puppet Master went flying into the air before falling down, sprawled out. He was half dazed and when he looked up he could see Ryan floating quite high above him. Then he could see some ice coming his way, lots of it.

Ryan saw The Puppet Master raise a hand to defend himself, then the spells his him. Ryan cast spell after spell, sending down sphere's of ice with varying danger. When the dust had settled so to speak, The Puppet Master was gone…there wasn't a trace of him left.

A tiny smile escaped Ryan's mostly covered lips. He took off his helmet to get and proper look at the area, no signs of him, he was gone, completely destroyed by Ryan's destructive spells.

Ryan slowly walked to edge of a cliff that was over looking the battle. He sat down and took a moment to gather his strength, he threw back a potion and got back into the action.

Within moments of The Puppet Masters defeat his minions were writhing in pain as they faded out of existence.

When they had all gone or his mind slaves had fled the two remaining armies looked at each other in a distrustful manner.

Gratis looked at Ryan's army, well trained warriors to be, veterans of a few battles by the looks of it, and they out numbered the remaining imperial forces seven to one.

Ryan walked up to Gratis. The two looked at each other in slight resentment.

"I'm still going to arrest you." Gratis said to inform Ryan.

"Perhaps, but not today." Ryan replied as he turned away.

"I'm trying to help you." Gratis said as he grabbed Ryan by one fist with a tight clench. He had hoped to catch Ryan off guard but he got the surprise was Ryan turned around and smashed him in the face with one of his heavy gauntlets. Gratis was knocked back and this little bit of tension was all that was needed to spark off a flame that was the two armies attacking one another.

This wasn't a fight that Gratis liked the look of but his attempts to end it were in vain. But just when it looked like everything was over a pleasant surprise arrived, reinforcements from Solstheim. Not just any regular soldiers either…werewolves.

Vjad would always remember the sight of Ryan waving a flag, standing on a large boulder ushering his men to make the final attack when suddenly three werewolves charged into and knocked him off the boulder.

When Ryan's soldiers were focused on the ferocious werewolf attackers Vjad lead the army to strike back.

The enemy was shattered.

Ryan himself was down at a beach wrestling with three werewolves, not just any werewolves though. It was Jaros, Moonstar and Aoku. They were tearing and clawing at his armour and he was responded with punches and grapples that threw them to the floor in most painful manners.

Ryan grabbed one of them by the throat and shoved it under water, thus the fight was taken to the water. Ryan could feel four sharp claws tear the flesh of his back, he turned around and delivered and powerful punch to the jaw of his attacker, it flew threw the air and crashed into the water, it was half submerged. The remaining two went into a frenzy, Ryan had never fought two more ferocious beings. It was more then he could handle, he managed to jab his fingers into the eyes of one, it would heal but it bought him time.

The final one looked at him, he didn't need to ask which one it was, it was Aoku. She nodded at him.

"Thank you." He replied and in a flash he was gone.

Eldinflame sat on his throne, he was ordering a pair of shades to do something, a hidden on looker could see them leave the room but was unable to hear what he had told them to do.

Suddenly there was a flash of light and Ryan was in the room, his armour tore open in parts, his arm covering a nasty wound, blood every where.

Eldinflame looked on in worry, not for Ryan per sae, but for his champion, who could supposedly win any battle.

"Bring in a healer! Immediately!" Eldinflame screamed. Three people entered the room, one cast some healing spells to remove most the injury whilst the other two lifted him onto a stretcher and carried him out.

When all the commotion was over Eldinflame sat down. The person that was hidden up in a little spot that allowed her to see the majority of goings on in this frozen castle's throne room, which was actually ninety percent ice.

She sat back only to discover where the two shades had gone, they were behind her. They grabbed her by the arms and pulled her straight before Eldinflame.

She landed badly and was held in place.

"How long did you think you could hide their without me picking up on you?" asked Eldinflame. She gave no response. Eldinflame nodded at a shade which responded by pulling back her hood.

"Why are you spying on me?" he asked.

"I'm not spying on _you_." She responded, an answer she knew would really piss him off.

"What?" He roared.

"I'm here to spy on Ryan." She explained.

"What do you know?" he asked her, she was sent by someone who had a connection to Ryan, she might know something of significance.

"I don't think I like you enough to tell you."

"Oh really?" asked Eldinflame, suddenly the room went black, everything was a void. The only beings that existed were this spy and Eldinflame who had slipped something onto his thumb.

He approached her and placed his hand onto her shoulder; something dug into shoulder and pierced the flesh. It was a claw; he had placed a steel claw in his thumb. She gave a little whimper as it drew blood.

"Want to tell me?" he asked.

"Never." She replied. Suddenly he turned her around, there was a massive creature now facing her, a giant wyrm with several slimy tentacles that reached for her in a most worrying fashion.

"Tell me who sent you, I'll call it off. You never know what it'll do." He said, as he trailed a finger down her face. When a tentacle reached her chest she broke.

"Okay, Vvardenfell sent me." She said, tears running down her face.

"Tell me more!" he ordered, the creature beginning to tear its way through her leather armour as if it weren't there with some kind of acidic juice.

"She wants me to keep an eye on Ryan and try to stop him from finding out." She said, not giving away to much detail.

"Find out about what?" he asked. At this point the creature was wrapping its tentacles around her naked body.

She choked out a few words, when Eldinflame realised what she had said, or tried to say threw all that crying and fear. He knew he had a weapon, a reason for Ryan to return to Vvardenfell, the island that is. Eldinflame would use this information to spur Ryan on the take over all of Vvardenfell, and eventually all of Morrowind, all under the Eldinflame flag. Eldinflame would be the most powerful emperor to ever live.

Suddenly the room went back to normal and the spy realised that what had just happened wasn't entirely real.

Eldinflame entered the medic bay where he found Ryan, shame covering his face.

"Eldinflame, don't ask me to go back there, I lost, leave them have the island, besides the mission was a total success, I achieved my objectives." Ryan asked and informed.

"That's good to here, I wasn't going to ask you to go back there but I was just torturing a spy from Vvardenfell and she told me something you'll want to know." Eldinflame informed.

"What's that?" Ryan asked.

"You have a son."

**Gevaden: That's another chapter! Ryan finally knows that he has a son! Review please, I liked this chapter and I want to know what you think. **


	26. New Power

**Gevaden: Another chapter, I hope you enjoy! If you have anything to say that you think will make this a more enjoyable Fanfic (bar update more often, that's a given I think) I really want you to say it.**

It was quick, it was merciless and it was devastating but it was not unexpected. A massive fleet arrived from the north and attacked Viljoden, a city founded (for the most part) by Gratis as defence from such a strike from the north. Sadly the cities powerful defences were not quite complete and the fleet made quick work of blowing down the towers before landing and forcing their way through the island.

Our heroes were quick to the defence and they were all more powerful then ever. But even with their enhanced training regimes and new spells developed by the joint efforts of Aoku, Tricia and the Mages Guild they found it very difficult to defend their home.

Not because of the giant numbers Ryan had brought with him, that had in fact almost nothing to do with it, it was a deadly soldier he brought with him and he had only brought several dozen of these Frozen Knights, each one was seven foot tall, powerful, accurate with a crossbow and wielded a large frozen sword that shattered shields and decapitated an armoured orc with ease. The worst part of it was, there were extremely difficult to kill.

Masakari got his dagger into the back of the neck of one of these knights to no effect, he got one look inside the hole in the armour he made and saw only the armour at the front of the neck, their was nothing inside the armour.

Gratis and Ershedro were fighting the regular infantry and noticed something very wrong with the battle.

"Ershedro." Gratis called.

"What? I'm a little busy!" He said as he launched one soldier at several others with ease.

"These soldiers all have Ryan's emblem on their armour." Gratis pointed out.

"Yeah, so what?" Ershedro asked.

"Well this is a very intense battle, a battle where certain individuals could be the make or break." He continued.

"I fail to see where you're going." Ershedro pointed out.

"Well…where's Ryan?" Gratis pointed out.

"Probably too scared after the licking he took last time he came here." Ershedro joked as he looked around the battlefield and sure enough Ryan was no where to be seen.

Meanwhile Back in Balmora Vvardenfell, Tricia and Beeblebrox were pacing up and down. These three would lead the final defence if the rest failed.

"I should be out there! I should be….I shouldn't be waiting around!" Beeblebrox proclaimed for the third time whilst his hand rubbed his massive hammer.

The other two new their importance here in Balmora and it allowed Vvardenfell to keep an eye on her little one who was currently asleep upstairs, oblivious to what was going.

There was a knock on the door, they looked to one another and then Beeblebrox opened the door.

He was met by Ryan who had adorned himself in a new style of armour that being several key items that could generate magical barriers as opposed to his usual thick plated armour that hindered his movement.

Beeblebrox was not going to let this fallen hero try anything so he quickly picked up his hammer and slammed it against Ryan's face. Beeblebrox was most confused by Ryan's reaction or lack there of, for Ryan had not even moved slightly when an enchanted Daedric war hammer had just made contact with his almost completely unprotected face.

Beeblebrox was not confused when Ryan's boot made contact with his stomach and sent him crashing into the wall at the back of the room.

Ryan entered the house.

He quickly spotted Vvardenfell and Tricia, what a surprise; his ex-lovers are the final defence against him.

"You know why I'm here." He said. And they did, he had sent a messenger not very long ago stating that he wanted to meet his child. When Vvardenfell quickly replied that she would not allow such a traitor and butcher near her son, regardless of how related they are. The messenger replied that Ryan had predicted such a response and shall come to take his child and the throne of the island.

And now Ryan was here with the intentions of keeping his promise.

"Where is he?" Ryan asked with the genuine interest of a father who had never seen his eleven month son.

"Why should I tell you?" Vvardenfell asked.

"Because I'm his father…and I showed your little spy every respect I'd show someone I had invited myself." Ryan replied, he had been taken back by the hostile response he got from everyone on this island, well everyone he revealed his presence to.

"Really? Why should I believe you?" She asked and as if she had said some kind of key word her spy but more so her friend walked in.

"Ask her." Ryan said, being very careful not to do anything that might jeopardise his first meeting with his son.

Vvardenfell whispered something to her now back at home friend, the spy went upstairs.

"Vvardenfell…please let me see my son. I don't want to have to take him by force but I will. I will not be separated by my son, he's all I have. But I don't even have him." Ryan informed.

"Take him by force? There's a surprise. That's all you do, all you know, combat! Killing! You'll raise this child to be a warrior won't you?" Vvardenfell replied, getting a bit agitated.

Ryan had nothing to say in response, he knew she was right, it's what he had been dreaming of since he heard the news, raising the perfect warrior, not a soldier, a warrior.

"I thought so…" Vvardenfell said.

"Please…" Ryan replied.

"Get out!" She screamed. Beeblebrox stood with his hammer, ready to try and ward off Ryan. Aoku reluctantly stood to ward off Ryan again.

"I'm so sorry about this." Ryan said. Suddenly there was a golden-yellow sphere of magicka in his hand which launched itself at the three, there was an explosion of magicka and stone as they were blown through the wall. The three rolled down a hill and landed in a lake that had been formed by the events in this area since the war began.

Ryan made his way upstairs and looked for his son whom he found on the third floor. Ryan noted that this particular house didn't have a third floor last time he was here.

He went upstairs again and found our little spy friend guarded the child in its crib. Ryan looked at the spy with a look that showed how unimpressed he was by the daedric crossbow pointed at him.

"Daedric weapons are so over rated." He pointed out.

"Just stay back." She replied.

"Get out of my way. I will have no problem in killing _you_." He informed.

"Just stay away." She ordered.

"Go ahead, shoot me, like all the other archers, crossbowmen, shuriken wielding ninja's that have tried before. Go ahead, maybe you're the one that was supposed the kill me."

And sure enough she fired the bolt but Ryan easily caught it, snapped it and threw it to the floor. He then walked very slowly to the spy who was desperately trying to reload quickly. But Ryan just grabbed her around the collar and threw her through the wall.

He then got his first look at his son, his perfect son. Still fast asleep after the commotion that took place in this house.

_Only my child could sleep through an explosion _he thought to himself, the only joke he had cracked in months.

He picked up his child and walked out if the house, there was an escort waiting for him which was made up of Sparhawk and one of the frozen knights.

Suddenly two figures sprung out of nowhere and attacked Ryan, one of them launched a furious kick to the side of Ryan's head, once again to no effect. Ryan handed his child to Sparhawk and ushered to them that he would deal with it.

He turned to his attackers, it was Masakari and Astelan, although they were not adorned in their usual dark ninja garments. They were wearing more typical martial art outfits. Both showed the symbol of Masakari's master, it would seem that Masakari's old sensei had given the two further training.

This would be a great chance for Ryan to try out his new power.

Ryan held his hands open at his sides and suddenly thousands of little golden yellow globes of magicka shot out at the two. They jumped to the side to avoid the blasts, not to waste any time the ran up to Ryan, coming at him from different sides and started punching and kicking at him, he crossed his arms and effortlessly dodged every punch and kick. It was clearly a method of taunting them.

When he felt that they had seen his evasive skills properly he kicked them away. But they were quick to jump back to their feet. Masakari launched at Ryan with another furious kick, this time he had sent a fire spell just before himself so it was more of a fiery kick to Ryan's face. The spell and foot collided with Ryan's face, again he was unaffected. Ryan started to slowly levitate into the air.

Not to be out done the other two took to the air and the three resumed the fight in air. Ryan launched at Masakari and sent a fist in the direction of Masakari's face. Masakari flew backwards to stay at pace with Ryan coming at him, and moved slightly to the right to avoid Ryan's left fist that was coming at him but quickly realised that he had fallen into Ryan's trap as he saw a yellow-golden globe in Ryan's slightly hidden right hand, Ryan shoved the globe into Masakari's side. It exploded the way all destructive spells do when the hit someone and Masakari was sent hurtling through the air.

Astelan came diving down on top of Ryan with two flaming fists, at the last moment Ryan launched his head up, Astelan was caught off guard by Ryan suddenly coming up at him, Ryan's head went through Astelan's hands and there two heads collided. Astelan was not wearing the metallic protection Ryan was and thus it hurt him much more.

As Astelan started to fall Ryan gave a powerful kick into Astelan's side. Astelan flew through the sky and Ryan went after him. He grabbed him by the head and forced him into a building.

Masakari came down on Ryan and instead of going for one kick he just started stamping on Ryan's head. This seemed to cause irritation more then anything else and Ryan easily slapped him away.

Masakari and Astelan got together again.

"We need to get him away from the city, people might get hurt." Astelan pointed out.

"I know…okay…I'll get his attention and bring him from the city, you check out Vvardenfell, Aoku and Beeblebrox." Masakari replied.

"Got it." Astelan said and flew towards the others.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ryan asked, even though he didn't say it even nearly loud enough for Astelan to hear him. Ryan sent another one of those golden-yellow sphere's at Astelan who only noticed it at the last moment. It hit him and pushed him down through one of the bridges of Balmora and into the river before exploding.

Meanwhile Aoku was getting up, just barely. That golden-yellow sphere had gotten them by surprise. She noticed that the other two were starting to pick themselves up again.

They saw what was going on between Ryan and Masakari, and they saw that Ryan was far too powerful for Masakari to even try and seriously compete.

"Vvardenfell, I think it's time we try out that new spell." Aoku said.

"I think you're right." She replied.

Beeblebrox looked at the two whilst they took a moment to charge the spell and to look at Ryan. That spell he had cast, that golden-yellow globe had taken down the three of them, his armour was for the most part disintegrated, Aoku and Vvardenfell's garments had been torn to threads, luckily they were just about covering the things that needed covering.

Beeblebrox watched as the bright blue spells went soaring into the sky from Aoku and Vvardenfell's hands. No point in being the only one not using Magicka. He sent his on spell up at Ryan.

"Hope you choke on it." He added as it flew up.

Ryan and Masakari saw the three spells coming up. Two of them collided with Masakari who was instantly feeling a lot stronger. The other spell hit Ryan and exploded.

As Ryan was seemingly distracted by the spell that had just hit him Masakari flew in and through the cloud of fading magicka and punched Ryan in the stomach. This punch had a bit more effect as he now had magically enhanced attributes.

Ryan realised that this had just gotten a little more serious and went back on the attack. Ryan could see the enhancement spell on Masakari, it was very powerful magicka coming from a very pure source. There was an energy coming from Masakari, a blue aura that was the enhancement spell, anything he was wearing that could look different depending on the light now looked rather blue. Such as his hair (I know, you don't wear hair…leave me alone) or his eyes.

The two collided, punching and kicking. Masakari was drawing him away from Balmora but as they fought it was clear that Ryan was still the superior combatant by quite a bit.

Masakari launched a fist at Ryan, Ryan grabbed the fist. Masakari tried with his other fist but Ryan grabbed that two. There was a large smirk across Ryan's face and despite their past friendship Masakari was dying to be the person to wipe that grin off his face. Masakari sent up his knee to get Ryan right on the jaw but Ryan surprised Masakari yet again with his new found strength and launched his chin down a few inches to meet Masakari's knee. The two were pushing at each other for a moment before Ryan's chin pushed Masakari's knee down. Ryan threw Masakari upwards before leaning backwards and kicked Masakari and sent him flying horizontally. Ryan flew after his old friend who was about to crash into a cliff face. Masakari still had some strength left and looked towards Ryan who was starting to look like a golden-yellow meteor coming at him. Masakari stopped before hitting the cliff face and prepared to get Ryan as he came at him. But sadly Ryan got at Masakari faster then expected and he grabbed Masakari by the head and rammed him into the cliff. The force of it caused the cliff surface to shatter massively; anyone looking at the cliff face from a distance would have seen a huge circle forming in the stone and at the centre of the circle was the two.

Ryan had his hand pressing Masakari's head against the stone. Putting more and more pressure with every few moments.

_I wish I didn't like this _

But Ryan did like this, he loved fighting his old friend but not in an evil way, more of "which of us is better" sort of friendly sparring session…a very extreme sparring session. There was a little anger because Masakari had tried to stop Ryan from being with his son.

Ryan let go of Masakari's head after realising that his foe was knocked out, the blue aura faded and Masakari collapsed to the floor way below. When he hit the floor it he made a little thud and the dust kicked up a bit.

Ryan flew back to Balmora, Sparhawk was gone but he could sense that he was in an organised placed should something have gone wrong.

Ryan flew to the battlefield but just watched. He also watched when his victorious forces marched into Balmora.

The final defence stood to defend. They were of course in no condition to defend the city and the invaders easily pushed them aside.

Ryan flew to Vivec, it wasn't to be the capital. Sparhawk flew up beside him and handed him his child.

"Who's in the city?" asked Ryan.

"Not a soul…it was completely evacuated hours ago. We've searched everywhere. Even that Daedroth that lurks in the temple is gone. The secret passages are empty." Replied Sparhawk.

"And that?" Ryan asked looking at the cities little moon that floated above the temple.

"Empty. Even the spirits have fled this place." Sparhawk replied. Ryan held his child with one hand and extended his other arm with an open palm facing the city of Vivec.

Sparhawk raised an eyebrow of curiosity as to what Ryan was doing.

A larger golden-yellow sphere of magicka appeared in Ryan's hand. Sparhawk had an idea of what Ryan was going to do but it was impossible. Ryan threw the globe down at the city. It collided with the Redoran canton and destroyed but it seemed to be pushing into the foundations of the city and expanding before it actually exploded and destroyed the city.

Vivec was now a smoking crater.

Sparhawk was shocked…he knew Ryan had gotten powerful…but to destroy the entire of Vivec with one attack…Vivec himself wasn't that powerful.

Ryan turned to face towards where Doguth Ur's domain once was. And as if by his mental command the stone rose up and formed his castle.

It took two weeks before he could really call himself "king" of the island. But his rule did become law.

There was no way for people to leave, his fleet's were stopping ships and searching them.

One night a black clad gentleman appeared at Gratis home.

"I believe I made have made a grievous error." He stated.

**Gevaden: That's the latest, I hope you liked it!**


	27. Levesque and the brown robed man

**Gevaden: Is this fast enough? Is it? Oh and review…**

Gratis was unsure of what to think of the visitor who had just turned up at his home saying that he had made "an error." The visitor certainly wasn't the most everyday man; he had long black hair that hung down perfectly straight, a bit too straight to be natural. He wore the garbs of a gothic aristocrat.

"Can I help you?" asked Gratis, still unsure what to think.

"Ah, where are my manners? I am Levesque Blackheart." The fellow said.

_What a suitable name _thought Gratis.

"As I said already…can I help you?" asked Gratis again.

"Might I step in…" asked Levesque although he walked in before waiting for an answer. "…Some time ago I had some dealings with your brother." Explained the gentlemen. Things were starting to take shape and make sense.

"Ah yes…our new king." Gratis nearly spat.

"Yes, I never knew this island had a king, I thought it was part of something bigger." The gentleman said.

"It was…I mean it is. But these dealings?" Gratis asked.

"Ah yes…well I'm not going to hide it, it'll come out soon enough. I'm half vampire." Levesque said, revealing some fangs.

"I fail to understand."

"Well as a half vampire I've lived for quite some time and in that time I've learned many things as one would expect."

"And?"

"Well one of the things I've taken an interest to is magicka…real magicka. Not that toy shit the mages guilds play with." Levesque said as if discussing an unwanted cousin.

"Toy shit?"

"Yes you heard me, there are only a very few people in the world who know what real magicka is…only a few can harness the power of real magicka."

"Like yourself?"

"Of course…and I noticed some very interesting magicka being used by those two Vvardenfell and Aoku. It's how I knew I had found the right people to come to with my predicament, that and of course you are Ryan's brother."

"Predicament?"

"Ah yes I'm getting side tracked. In my studies of magicka I discovered a possible key to immortality that revolved around the theory of making a person a passage of something as never ending as magicka after all if unused magicka is constantly flowing through someone it will keep them flowing so to speak."

"Why am I getting worried?"

"Yes I think you see where things are going, well when I heard that your brother was attacked by vampires yet cured in a most odd manner I believed he may be a half-vampire like myself which made me feel an odd kinship with him, even though we had never met. Regardless I approached him and made him an offer. Together we did fantastic experiments and amazing breakthroughs, but I assure you your brother is many things but a scholar in magicka he is not, regardless he was brilliant at controlling magicka of a very particular kind. There was something in his life that he truly hated and this gave him fuel to generate massive amounts of powerful, raw and most importantly unrefined magicka which is what I needed to complete my experiments on immortality and magicka."

"And you did this all over a few weeks with Ryan?"

"Don't be ridicules ninety-nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine percent of the research years before I ever met Ryan. He was just the last thing I needed."

"I'll take it your research was successful."

"Well his abilities have certainly been increased massively, I'd imagine this is due to all the magicka that is flowing through him, that combined with the armour I gave him."

"What armour?"

"Well it isn't really armour, more like magical trinkets, a pair of bracers, a pair of boots, a belt, and a necklace. They are the finest, took me years to develop them, I can repeat the procedure to link another person to magicka the way he is but as long as he has those trinkets he will be far more powerful."

"You can repeat the procedure?"

"Yes which is one of the reasons why I'm here, I'm unsure if Ryan can handle the sudden increase in his body functions. It was my first time performing the procedures, there was bound to be imperfections. But if I were to do it again I'm sure that I'd be able to perform it with improved effects, after all practice makes perfect. Regardless I'm not going to do it on any minion lying around. Only on truly elite people deserve this, if not can handle it. I'd suggest you and some of your allies join me in a few days at my current residence. I can perform the procedure and you can perhaps tame the wild beast that is Ryan."

"Why do you want to take him down?"

"I never said I wanted him taken down, but the wrong people have their word in his ear and with his power that I gave him it is impossible to imagine what could do."

"He's already destroyed Vivec."

"And that is but a taste of what is to come, as he continues his training and understands more about the change he's gone through he will get more powerful. No army will be able to withstand him, and I mean him, not an army he's leading but him. There is little else to say, I am residing in what was once Tel Fyr. Do join me in a few days."

With that he was gone, Gratis had several more questions but he got no choice, Levesque was gone out the door very quickly.

Gratis didn't know why but he trusted this fellow.

It was gone midnight when a very distressed Vvardenfell was woken up by a knocking on the door. She was understandably depressed, worried and others that go with a mother who's eleven month old son had been taken from her. She was not on her own in the house, Aoku would have been their but she was out doing various werewolf things. Also Masakari was there, he was there to keep her company and help her with anything that he could. Just trying to be helpful.

Vvardenfell answered the door but couldn't really see her visitor due to his dark coloured garbs and the darkness of night.

"Do you want your son back?" asked the visitor.

"Of course I do." She said ushering in the individual. In the light of the house she could make out her visitor. He wore a large brown cape that covered most of his body, his brown hood also covering most of his head and a steel face mask covering most his face bar his eyes and the bridge of the nose in-between his eyes.

"I can get him back, but there are a few things I must ask of." His voice was that of someone who had lost everything.

"Anything!"

"Do not ask me my name, my past anything. That's the first thing, the second is that nobody but you and the ninja upstairs must no of my existence. Lastly I'll need his help."

"Of course…but how can I trust you?" She asked, trying not to get her hopes up pointlessly. He pulled out a necklace, not just any necklace of course, it was the necklace Ryan used to use to heal himself, constantly healing tiny injuries and over a long period, the more major ones.

"How did you get this?" Vvardenfell asked.

"That violates my first condition."

"Fine, but why are you helping me?"

"Ryan's taken everything from me…this is my last chance for revenge. I'm saying any else, please awaken the ninja." He asked. She did so very quickly, she explained everything to Masakari but told him to be careful, there was something wrong with this person.

The two left, exchanging very few words.

After a little while of travelling they reached the new "royal castle." It was guarded by those mystic frozen knights for the most part but riddled with other more regular guards.

Masakari was impressed by the power of this brown draped hero, every time a guard spotted them, the guard fell asleep on the spot.

They travelled trough the halls (in a stealthy manner of course) until they reached a large bronze door. They opened it and were hit in the face by steam that gushed out of the room. It seemed to be a spa of sorts, it was a cream tiled room with water flowing in from various places, they couldn't see very well through the steam but it wasn't hard to make there way to the back and find Ryan asleep in a large square bath. In Ryan's arms he held his child, also fast asleep.

Masakari's heart was pounding; he remembered the thrashing Ryan was able to deal out back in Balmora. But Masakari's partner seemed to have a trick up his sleeves. He pulled out an enchanted dart and stabbed it into Ryan's shoulder…they could have killed him.

And as Masakari thought of that the brown robed fellow spoke.

"Losing his son is worst then death to him. I want him to suffer." Whilst carefully taking the child from Ryan.

The two lost no time in finding something to wrap the child in and getting out of there.

They were half way back to Balmora when they discovered that there was a golden-yellow meteor firing through the sky, and of course it was coming for them.

"Masakari, take the child and hide in the bushes…and do hide well." Said the fellow before pulling some rags out of somewhere unseen and forming them to look like a child wrapped up. Masakari didn't try to suggest something else, time was against them.

Masakari watched as Ryan caught up with the brown garbed fellow.

"My child! NOW!" Said Ryan, walking slowly but purposely towards his foe.

It was soon revealed that the rags were not Ryan's child and of course a fight ensued. Masakari was impressed with how well this fellow was able to go toe-to-toe with Ryan, who didn't seem as powerful as when they had fought, but still very powerful. Regardless after a few minutes Ryan had his mysterious foe against the ropes. He held the limbed character in one arm.

"Who are you?" asked Ryan. The person used one hand to pull the face mask away.

"Why won't you die? I killed you!" Ryan shouted.

Masakari still couldn't see who it was but he had an idea, but that raised a lot of questions. Ryan started to hammer blows down on his foe. Masakari could hear his partner scream as bones cracked after every few blows. The person at no point told Ryan anything about the child or Masakari's involvement.

Eventually Ryan dragged the person back to his castle.

Masakari went back to Balmora a hero. Waiting for him with Vvardenfell was his sensei, Astelan, Gratis and Turv.

"What's with the party?" asked Masakari.

"I had a visitor earlier tonight with some…interesting things to say." Informed Gratis before explaining everything about his conversation with Levesque.

"And basically the people I want to go under his little procedure are you, Astelan, Turv and myself and probably others in the near future." Finished Gratis. But Masakari's attention was towards his sensei who seemed rather distant and upset.

"What is wrong master?" asked Masakari.

"The person you went with you is an old friend of mine, before a difference in views on life separated us in many ways. But he came to me recently and confessed his sins, they were terrible and many but I forgave him, at least those which I could forgive him for, they were not all against me mind you. But I aided him in the planning of this little rescue mission, it was I who suggested that he seek you for aid. You being my finest student." He explained.

"Who was he?" asked Masakari.

"I should not tell you but I believe you deserve to know, so you shall not think badly of him. But he is a man named Caius Cassius, an imperial that I met many many years ago when I was very young. We trained together for many years and in time it was clear that I was the superior combatant, much to his dismay, but instead of get bitter about it he asked me for help which I gladly gave him. But when ever it came to the martial arts competition that was held ever year we always met in the ring eventually and I was always the victor. In time he grew tired of being second so he decided to pursue a different calling in life, that of magicka. He was always very charismatic and found manipulating others easy. This came to influence his magicka and he developed the power to control others. I presume by now you have guessed that my friend Caius Cassius is who you know as The Puppet Master, a name he took after his fall into darkness, a fall he was aware of. He knew he was a servant of evil." Explained Master Roshi whilst stroking his beard.

The room fell into silence.

Three days later the group just mentioned arrived at Tel Fyr. Vvardenfell followed along believing that being with them was safer for both her and her child.

"Ah my champions have arrived!" celebrated Levesque as he greeted his guests. Everyone noticed that Levesque and Master Roshi bowed to one another the way all master and pupils do.

"I'll take it you've trained Levesque in your many years." Said Turv.

"Far from it, I trained Roshi." Said Levesque as guided his guests through the redecorated Tel Fyr, it was nothing like it's old self, only the location really.

After much feasting and explaining they decided to start straight away.

"It is a three hour per person process. So patience is a must really." Said Levesque as he opened a door to a large oval room. It wasn't long before everyone noticed a glass pane up along one of the walls. Behind the glass pane was a short line of fire and beyond that was someone who looked like a cross between Levesque and a Daedra but dressed in large robes of fur similar to what a barbarian might wear, he was sitting on a throne of one would expect to see a barbarian king sitting on, with a larger wall of fire behind him.

"Who is that?" asked Vvardenfell.

"That is my other half so to speak; ignore him for the most part. He might say something once in a while, probably some dark prophecy or snide comment which will tie in with our impending doom at the hand of some great destroyer. Don't worry he can't get beyond the fire. Now let us begin." Said Levesque.

Everyone knelt in a line and Levesque knelt before Masakari, who had earned to be the first to receive the gift. He placed a hand on Masakari's head and the process began.

Many, many hours later when everything was done, Levesque snuck into the dorm and performed the ritual once more on whom he knew to be the real champion.

**Gevaden: Oh wasn't that a nice chapter! I thought it was okay and I hope you did too! I'd like to know what you think of what's going on at the moment so please review!**


	28. A real test

**Gevaden: Another chapter! To answer some of your questions, **

**Necromancer, no _Levesque_ has no connections with Eldinflame, but you will be seeing what he's up to quite soon.**

**Sineari, yes there will be a big bunch of new comers, I'd like a little input as to what you folks like in characters so far so I can develop more interesting characters.**

Everyone who had been given the gift of power that Levesque could bestow had been testing it out, they were quite happy with the results. Yet they still hadn't had a real chance to test the real limits of this new power.

"Why don't we go chase down Ryan?" Asked Astelan.

"Because he wields some items that increase his power even further, and he's had time to develop and understand his power, confrontation is unwise, you are not ready." Levesque said.

"Even if we all go after him with this power?" asked Masakari.

"Potentially that could work, it would be your only hope at victory. If I were to explain the method of it I'd have to give each of you a number to represent your power. Ryan is at one hundred whilst the four of you are each at thirty, separately you are still far weaker, combined you are stronger by quite a bit but it would require the continued efforts of you as a team to take him down." Levesque explained, it was clear that he had put thought into this.

"Then we have part of a plan and we have a chance." Roshi said.

"We need an opening to strike at him, he never leaves his castle." Added Gratis.

"He'd leave the castle to deal with a threat that anything else could deal with, perhaps if we made a strike at the castle…perhaps to break The Puppet Master out." Said Masakari, saying something like that was going to need time for getting used to, breaking the Puppet Master out of prison?

After much discussion it was agreed that they were indeed going to try and break The Puppet Master out of prison which would hopefully lead Ryan out of the castle to stop them were they would get there chance to take him down.

Getting close to the castle was easy, but once they showed signs that they were breaking into the prison complex they guards came quickly. Suffice to say, they were slaughtered. But then the Frozen knights came.

Gratis remembered fighting these things on the battlefield when Ryan came, they were a pain, they just kept going and going, it seemed that the total destruction of their bodies was the only thing that stopped them.

One of them was walking up to Gratis with in a slow, purposeful manner with a big sword in hand. As it got into striking distance Gratis raised a hand and let loose some of his new power, his new magicka. The armour that was their entire being peeled away and scattered under the force and speed of his magicka.

"I quite like this." Gratis said as some of the others destroyed the guards at their own leisure.

The Puppet Master, or Caius Cassius even, sat in his cell, which compared to the other prisoners cells, was quite nice. He had decent seating, a decent bed; it was like something from a somewhat cheap inn. He was currently sitting on the bed with his legs crossed over in meditation. Something he hadn't done in years.

To his surprise the wall was blown open and the ninja Masakari was ushering him out. He quickly leapt out of the cell and noticed guards sprawled all over the place.

"We're out of here." Said Astelan and they all started to fly off. Of course after a few seconds of flying something happened. As Astelan was flying there was a quick blur and then he could feel a pain in his face as if he had flown straight into a mountain. He dropped a few feet before getting himself together and getting control of his flight.

"What's wrong?" asked Gratis.

"There's someone here." Astelan replied. Gratis looked around and for a quick moment he got a sight of Ryan's face coming at him, but it was only for a second and the face was mere inches from his own face then the face was gone in a blur but Gratis could feel something crack into his stomach before launching him into the direction of the floor.

Back North…

Sparhawk and Isude were summoned to the throne room of Eldinflame.

"How faithful are you to your emperor?" A title Eldinflame took after being considered the ruler of three lands, this northern land, the country next door so to speak and now Vvardenfell, Ryan being his little puppet king.

"As faithful as we can be." They replied.

"Good, go to Vvardenfell and remind Ryan that he's occupying that throne for me and have him know that I plan to visit very soon. Go now and bring a team of your most effective fighters with you. I want you to make preparations for my own forces to occupy the land of Vvardenfell, I don't trust Ryan's troops of choice, they're faith is to him and not me."

"Yes sir."

"Don't yes sir me just go!" He ordered and they were gone in a flash of light.

Back in Morrowind…

They stood in a circle around Ryan. Each one ready to attack the moment anyone made a move.

Gratis was quick to on the offensive, he leapt in and starting punching and kicking at Ryan who quickly and insultingly evaded every blow with his arms crossed in a casual manner. Turv jumped in next and started attacking from the opposite side but Ryan kept up the evading. It was not until Masakari and Astelan jumped in was Ryan forced to make some distance and strike back.

Ryan was parrying blows from Masakari and Astelan who were working as a team as they always did these days. The two were knocked back by a blast of energy. The two darted into the sky and Ryan gave chase quickly dealing a hammering blow to each leaving them somewhat dazed.

Turv was staring at Ryan from the ground, he felt an anger, a passionate hate build up inside of him and this just fuelled his power. He flew directly towards Ryan, not sure what to do once he got to him, he was just going to let instinct take over.

Ryan spotted him coming from the corner of his eye and spun around delivering a devastating kick that smashed into Turv sending him flying to the ground, he made a rather bad landing as he hit the floor and skidded across the floor leaving a trail behind him.

Ryan flew down to the floor and ran in the direction of Turv's half dazed being whom was still sprawled out on the floor, recoiling from the powerful blow he had taken. Ryan reached Turv and placed a foot under Turv in a manner that allowed him to half kick and half launch him into the air before sending one of his powerful destructive golden globe's at him, it his him in the stomach, carried him further into the air before exploding.

All this time The Puppet Master had been generating a spell, one destructive spell, adding power to power, layer of elemental magicka to layer of elemental magicka. Whilst Gratis and Astelan took Ryan's attention Masakari flew up to The Puppet Master and added his own magicka to the giant sphere that was now illuminating the sky, of course the other's soon noticed that there was a giant ball the size of a small moon in the air.

Astelan joined up and added all the fire fuelled magicka to the ball as he could whilst Gratis grabbed onto Ryan from behind and held him in a position that made movement quite difficult for either party.

There was now three warrior's adding their power to this giant ball which was surely one of the most impressive to look at things in quite some time, the colour of different spells spun around and mingled, it was like a small sun in appearance, full of fiery red, icy blue, poisonous green and others.

"Someone must help Gratis get a chance to get away!" said The Puppet Master.

"Turv! You must do it!" Masakari shouted to Turv who was standing in the place where he had fallen after the spell hit him. He was holding one of his shoulder's which had been popped out of place by the kick, his garment's where ruined by the magical blast, he only had one eye open, the other one had a large, swelling bruise above it, a physical manifestation of what war had done to the island.

"There's no point! He's far too powerful! I don't care what that twat Levesque said! We're no match for him! Teamwork or not! Look at us! Each of us is going home bloody and beaten!" Turv shouted back.

"You coward!" The Puppet Master shouted before using an third arm, a mental, telepathic arm of sorts to reach out and grab Turv by the mind and take control, turning him into his Puppet, but Turv's will was too powerful for The Puppet Master to properly control, but he was more or less under his control.

Turv flew so that he was now positioned some fifteen feet in front of Ryan and Gratis who were struggling against one another. Turv started to generate a spell at the very peak of his forefinger.

_No! That's not what I'm ordering you to do! Just strike at him! _The Puppet Master thought to himself. But regardless Turv shot a straight beam of energy in the direction of Ryan and Gratis. The red beam hit Ryan in the chest and went straight through also hitting Gratis and also going straight through, injuring the two.

_Get Gratis and get out of there! I order you! _Thought The Puppet Master, commanding Turv who first flew straight upwards before stopping and plummeting down and smashing and elbow into the gut of an injured Ryan.

"Get them!" The Puppet Master said to Masakari who quickly complied. He flew down, grabbed Gratis and through him over one shoulder before pulling Turv away.

The area was clear of all but Ryan so The Puppet Master and Astelan carefully threw the sphere at Ryan. Ryan could see nothing but the small moon of colour coming in his direction but was unable to move in time before it came down, it more so landed on the floor and pressed it's way into the stone, burning away dirt and grass.

Turv was unhappy to let Ryan off, he proceeded to drain himself of energy by blasting spell after spell into the magicka moon, reinforcing it and pushing further into the ground.

The group left before the moon had even finished up and been used up, it was still destroying when they left.

They flew most of the way home but stopped a flying a few miles out of town as they were all drained of energy, especially Turv and The Puppet Master. Some where leaning on others for strength but they were all glad to be nearly home.

"So tell us, what was it like in that prison?" asked Masakari, still carrying Gratis for the most part.

"I wasn't a prisoner as much as I was his sparring partner. He wanted someone powerful to spar against to see how his power was rising. It was good that he needed me at full strength; it meant I was fed well and got plenty of good rest. He also gave me access to a laboratory which allowed me to carry out some experiments. Of course we had a fight every few days and I can say, he got noticeably stronger and faster as over a matter of days, every time we fought he beat me by more. But I hit him hard more then once." Snorted The Puppet Master.

"Not once enough!" Said a voice that shouldn't have been speaking but standing on the top of a natural bridge of rock that crossed a little stream was a battered and beaten Ryan. He was bleeding from the mouth and the injury to his chest, he was covered in dirt and many other signs of being on the wrong side of a fight.

He jumped down in front of them. Turv felt that rage build up inside of him again.

_Why won't you die? _Turv thought. His rage gave him the strength to summon up the strength to launch himself at Ryan with all the vigour he'd of had before the fight only an hour before. But as if he was a common insect Ryan smashed him aside with his good arm, the other was broken and it was quite obvious from his stance.

There were a few flashes of light, a blue of movement and everyone was paned out again.

"Now that you lot clearly can't but up anymore fight, I'm going to get my son!" He said as he drove a foot onto the back of Astelan who made a bad attempt and getting up. Hearing that he was going after his son, everyone summoned up the strength to get up once more but Ryan was having none of it, he gave a blast of magicka, even his reserves were waning at this point.

Masakari made one more attempt at getting up but a reassuring hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Rest, I shall take over." Said his Sensei before getting Ryan's attention, assuming a stance and motioning for Ryan to "bring it on."

Ryan looked at him, he had met Masakari's sensei many times before, he had even received a little training from him before some big battles, he knew that this man was capable of things that most people only did in their dreams. But Ryan was just outside of Balmora, he was bleeding heavily, he was tired, he just wanted his son and to go home. This man wasn't even standing in the way of Balmora. Ryan turned away and walked towards Balmora. Master Roshi sprung into action and leapt at Ryan but alas it would seem that whilst Master Roshi knew all the moves and was probably quite strong compared to an average person, he was totally out of league when it came to this band of warriors. Ryan dealt him a devastating blow without even meaning to. Roshi was knocked into a pile of rubble and left half buried.

But again everyone tried to get up and stop Ryan from taking his child. Turv, who was no longer under the influence of The Puppet Master, was slightly less enthusiastic. It took some convincing before he threw in his lot and tried to stop Ryan again. The commotion alerted the city guard who came running, noting that Ryan was now the "legal King" for all intents and purpose's they were quite unsure what to do. It was the arrival of Vjad, Sabre and Ershedro that made things happen, they told the guards leave and that they'd take care of it. Everyone was quite unsure what was going to happened at this point.

Sabre subtly cast a few healing spells he knew, they weren't great but they put Masakari and Turv in a lot better condition then Ryan was in, Astelan and Gratis had injuries were more then Sabre could heal.

At this point, Ershedro, Vjad, Sabre, Masakari, Roshi and a reluctant Turv were standing in Ryan's way, each one ready to take another attempt at protecting the child. More people came out to join the defence, Tricia, Beeblebrox, the werewolf versions of Moonstar and Aoku and V'lena.

"So you all are in such definite opposition of me raising my child?" Asked Ryan through as bloody face, blood which he made no attempt to wipe away. He got no response, but some people prepared to launch at him.

Ryan just looked to the floor and disappeared in a flash of light. He reappeared in his throne room, in the presence of Isude, Sparhawk and some good for nothing generals.

"Don't you look the part of a king?" asked a general sarcastically. Ryan just gave him a look of anger and the general knew he had made a mistake.

"Eldinflame is coming so everything better be perfect for him. It is clear from you're condition that you've failed to do something. That and a report in my hand says that an important prisoner has escaped, I see no one at your feet so I'll take it you couldn't get him back. Eldinflame will not be pleased with you're failure." Said Sparhawk.

_Haven't you grown up into an almighty prick? _Thought Ryan, he took a moment to remember Sparhawk when they first met, an eager young fellow desperate for recognition.

"This is my throne room, get out, leave me be and send in a healer, we will discuss this tomorrow." Ryan said before nearly collapsing onto the throne.

**Gevaden: That's another chapter! I hope you liked it! I thought it was quite good… **


	29. My Rightful place

**Gevaden: Hey folks it's another chapter! I hope I'm updating enough to satisfy you lot! Although I must admit my hits have dropped a wee bit to saw the least. I'd like your opinion on the fic as I was reading it and it's changed so much, it's hardly a Morrowind fic anymore! But I'll try to get back to the stories route's if you want, although it may be hard as I have some things that I think are pretty cool coming up.**

Eldinflame entered the throne room of Vvardenfell, where Ryan sat on his throne, a bandage covering were the spell had penetrated his chest and torn straight through him.

"You're inability to get back The Puppet Master was most disappointing, I though you were supposed to be invincible, unbeatable, but now it is twice that you have come back a beaten wreck!" Eldinflame said, furiously.

"I did not fail in bringing him back, I witnessed his full power and realised how pathetic he is in comparison to me. I have enough power in my fingertips to destroy him. His most powerful spell, aided by others was unable to defeat me. It is hardly an understatement to say should I had put the same effort into a spell I could have destroyed him. Thus I let him go." Ryan replied, at this point he hadn't even raised his head to greet the "Emperor."

One of several Emerald clad warriors that we're escorting Eldinflame stood forward.

"You shall raise you're head and address our Emperor as Imperial Majesty!" His teeth grinding with anger that this puppet king would dare disrespect the Emperor like that.

"Don't speak to me you insignificant, over shined barbarian." Ryan replied, still with his head pointing down with his eyes closed, as he was trying to rest. Eldinflame ushered the Emerald Warrior to stand down before he could make a response.

"Regardless of what excuses you have Ryan I want you to start wearing the helmet of Drak'thu'olbong'dastre'mong again. You'll need the boost it gives you." Eldinflame stated in tone that suggested that it was more of an order.

"I dislike that helmet intensely and you know it. Besides…" Said Ryan pointing to the golden circlet crown, one of the trinkets Levesque had given him.

"I've taken you're little toy into consideration and I expected that you'd put up a fight on this and thus I had some adjustments made to the shape of the Helmet, you're toy will fit onto it nicely. It might not look very good, dark grey steel and gold but I don't think it matters really, considering its use. Now put it on!" Ordered Eldinflame. Ryan had no intention of putting it on because of Eldinflame's order, he stopped taking direct orders from Eldinflame a long time ago, it infuriated Eldinflame but that only made it all the more enjoyable for Ryan. Regardless Ryan did have one very good idea in mind about a use of the Helmet and it had nothing to do with power and thus he accepted to wear it.

Ryan placed the helmet on and then slotted his crown into where and circle of small horns would hold it in place quite well, as was the design of the little horns.

Eldinflame was one who enjoyed wearing quite luxurious garments and a crown to show that he was an emperor; it was a fantastic piece that, of course, was enchanted to amplify his powers. He looked at Ryan's "crown" with disgust, it was a golden headset, it was plain gold with a blue jewel in the centre, and it wasn't even very large. It came around his head, it was small enough to fit in-between his hair line and eyebrows, it curved down to meet at the top of the bridge of his nose. Of course it wasn't supposed to be a crown, it benefited his power…but couldn't Levesque have made his trinket a bit more luxurious?

In fact Ryan's current garments in general were rather…dislikeable. He once wore intricate, powerful, enchanted heavy armour, crafted by the greatest blacksmiths to ever live and empowered by wizards of legend…now he wore simply white pants, and to make it worse they were baggy, they didn't fit well, and of course then there was that red sash, a very large red sash around his waist that seemed to be tucked into one place and then came around from behind and curve up into the centre of stomach, it covered most of his legs. One might say something for the golden boots he wore, but they didn't suit the rest of garments. Then of course he decided to show his chest for some reason. The sash came half way up his stomach. Bar the bracelets, the necklace, the headpiece and the belt he didn't wear anything else. At least there was pattern in his jewellery, gold with a blue gem of sorts. Now with the helmet he looked rather stupid.

But onto a more interesting subject.

"Do you want to see the real trick behind the helmet?" Eldinflame asked everyone present.

Ryan looked up in confusion. There was silence as everyone looked at Eldinflame.

He raised his hand to his mouth and breathed upon one of his various rings, the one in particular was a simple silver ring with a jet diamond in it. But as his breath hit the surface of the diamond it seemed that a little galaxy of star exploded within the ring. Ryan felt an immense pain shoot through his head.

He grabbed his head and fell to his knee's, he left out a bloodcurdling scream. A golden-yellow beam shot out his mouth and eyes.

Everyone took a step back.

Ryan's body started to convulse and then…it started to grow.

"What better way to improve a ferocious champion? Make him bigger and take away his thoughts. What you are seeing is what I had planned for that helmet all along, it's true god that had it in the past was no god, just a man who had been given the strength of a titan by the helmet! He ruled over an island for years! The helmet slowed his aging to a crawl! With Ryan's already vampire infused blood he should be my immortal super weapon!" Eldinflame said with his arms stretched wide apart like some kind of genius showing off his latest work.

"But Ryan was cured of vampirism? Wasn't he?" Asked Shindra, who had just made an appearance after a trip to the imperial city to see what data she could steal for Eldinflame.

"Oh yes he was! But he still had the blood of a vampire! Not his entire blood, mind you but some of it is vampiric! He didn't know it but it has prolonged his life span greatly. With the Helmet he is nearly immortal! Not that the helmet will last much longer. I want him to absorb its full power and destroy it! Its magicka will last as long as he does as my ring will keep him under my command! Snarled Eldinflame.

Sure enough as Ryan was down on his knee's screaming with that golden light shooting from his mouth and eyes, the helmet exploded into tiny bits of shrapnel that disintegrated under the weight of their own power. Ryan keeled over for a moment before getting up as if nothing had ever happened. But it was clear that he was different, all colours had disappeared from his eyes, they were just white balls in his head, his face was stern in to no end, and there was no sign of peace or love in his face, just an angry determination.

"And that gentleman…is the power of a real Shadow Weaver." Eldinflame said as Ryan sat on his throne of stone.

Ten years later….

Three young kids sat on a hill resting after a hard days work. One child was a twelve year old Dunmer, one was a ten year old orc and the other was a ten year old half Nord half Breton.

From there little hill they could see the city of Caldera, their home, in the distance. They were just lying in the grass, enjoying the last few rays of sunlight before the night came in.

"What do you two want to do tomorrow?" Asked The Dunmer, a young lad named Ordo.

"My Dad is making him help in the smith." Replied the Orc Graz-gul.

"Mom's making me study. I'll be out after lunch." Odium replied.

"Have you found out what you're getting for you're birthday?" asked Ordo.

"Nope, but I reckon my uncle will get me a sword, I got a good feeling this year." Replied Odium.

"What's your uncle's name again?" asked the ever forgetful Graz.

"Gratis."

As the trio chatted a few hours away they decided to head home, it was getting dark and the cities night watch were scary bastards. Although the way Odium saw it no guard in their right mind would really try and harm him, his uncle was head of town security, his martial arts instructor was head of the most successful training academy on the island, possibly in the entire empire that this fair island was a part of, almost everyone in his mother's chain of friends fought in the war as did his mother.

He entered his home, a lovely little building next door to where the Mages Guild was. Apparently it belonged to his Dad before he was killed in the war.

"Mom, I'm home." Odium shouted up the stairs. His mother came down and greeted him whilst doing a spot of cleaning.

Vvardenfell was now in her early forties and whilst problems such as war, poverty, serious sickness or anything of the sort hadn't been a problem for her in the last ten years there were still some fears that continually kept her on edge. Whilst the rumour was that Ryan died during reign of The Puppet Master. The vast majority of the population believed that, there was still that tiny few people who knew the truth, but almost no one with a reason to tell Odium that his father never died and was in fact The Frozen King that ruled over the Island in place of their ever cruel Emperor who was even to this day, ten years later, he was pressing war on islands, never continents, they could muster far more people then smaller islands. He'd often send powerful mercenaries to break up an islands defences, infrastructure anything else that would stand in the way of an easier re-colonisation.

But this was a fear she brushed away easily by just keeping busy and living a happy, peaceful life.

Odium was at this point fast asleep in his bed. Vvardenfell sometimes watched him sleep for a few moments, she saw the innocence he was, and for those few moments, life was simple and easy.

The next day after Odium had gotten all of his study and chores out of the way he was, as always with his friends. Everything was going at its usual relaxed state but excitement was building up as Odium's birthday approached.

On the big day itself Odium woke up at the crack of dawn, ran downstairs and found several people setting up for later in the morning, when he was expected to get up.

"Welcome up and happy birthday kido." Masakari said, being the first to spot him. It was not odd for Masakari to drop over on his birthday, it was strange that Masakari, Gratis and Vjad would be helping at this hour in the morning, they must have something special planned.

Vvardenfell appeared behind Odium quietly and held a present over his head. Odium grabbed it in the way one would expect a now eleven year old boy to grab a card. Odium opened the card and something slipped onto the floor, he of course quickly picked it up to see what his present was, although he had been expecting something a bit larger, possibly sharp. He had a good read of what little writing was on it, but it didn't matter how much writing was on it, it was far better then any crummy weapon he had hoped for, it was a ticket to the Imperial City Arena combat tournament, it was a no weapons, no armour three on three fighting competition held once every ten years in the worlds top arena. To get a ticket was somewhat hard; to get one when you lived on a different island was extremely difficult.

Odium held the ticket…stunned.

"That's not all, we're bringing you're two little friends Pookiecakes!" His beloved mother said.

Blood rushed to Odium's face, but not in the good way, in the "I'm so embarrassed way." Whilst it was great that his friends were coming, his mother calling him "Pookiecakes" in front of his master, Masakari, was just too much. It was even worst when Masakari looked away to give one of those smiles that said "that was just a bit to little to make me laugh."

After the embarrassment the day went marvellously, getting presents of all sorts and what not. Plus of course he got to tell Graz and Ordo they were going to the tournament, they loved him.

Three days later they were boarding a ship to the Imperial City, Vvardenfell, Gratis, Masakari, Vjad, Ershedro, Sabre, Aoku, V'Lena, Tricia, Beeblebrox, of course Odium, Graz, Ordo and they'd be meeting Shardae, Tanis, Moonstar, Zebeyna, Jaros and Astelan over there. Odium had always heard it was hard to get out off the country

Vvardenfell brought the little ones around the Imperial City, seeing the sights and sounds for the two days before the tournament whilst Vjad, Gratis and Masakari got in with last minute training before the tournament and of course everyone enjoyed the night life, except the young ones. Moonstar on the other hand was busy spreading the teachings of the late Almalexia, although after a decade and a lack of success to convert many people, even he was starting to get bored of preaching.

The day of the tournament quickly came, everyone got their seats. The tournament started, it would last all day, a bit of tonight and then the semi finals and the finals would be tomorrow. Once our hero's came onto the arena floor it was made quiet clear that they were far beyond the competition, often being capable of knocking the opposition out of the ring with a single blow.

It was the next day that things got interesting yet worrying. They had of course made it to the finals. There opposition didn't look particularly threatening, three imperials, a fat one, a slimmer but much older one and a very thin woman, who looked more like an angry little girl who didn't want to be here.

"We have made the request for this to be a match to the death, the officials have said it is to be allowed and due to champions right, you must accept this rule or forfeit." Said the old one with a dry, almost metallic voice.

Everyone heard the announcer tell the crowd of the situation, and explain that whilst this group of warriors are not the champions, they have a son of a champion and are here representing the champion team, thus they get the champion's right.

This was supposed to be a competition, they were supposed to fight, maybe win and then get home, killing someone was not to be part of the plan, the days of killing were for the most part gone from their lives, the occasionally had to hunt down someone who was a dangerous threat and out of the ability for the guards, but not threatening enough to gain the attention of one Eldinflame's champions, in the case of the island of Vvardenfell it was Ryan or "the frozen king" as the populace knew him and he hadn't been seen properly in years.

Vjad, Masakari and Gratis took a few moments to discuss what to do, they looked to the crowds to see their friends looking at them with a confused look, Masakari looked at Odium who almost looked worried.

They quickly decided not to fight. Masakari looked to Odium again, his face said "you made the right choice, I'm proud" in the way an eleven year old gives that look.

As the three went to leave the arena one of their opponents called them, the old one again.

"We shall have our fight, if not by you're choice then we will force you to fight us!"

The three turned around and looked with curiosity. The old one raised his left arm and just pointed it completely straight, then tilted it up until it was pointed at the audience. A blue spell shot from his hand, hit the audience and caused a huge explosion, killing many people.

"Hey! They didn't do anything! Why did you do that?...You bastards!" Screamed Vjad.

"We shall have our fight! You will be destroyed." Replied the old one. It was with those words that the trio got the feeling these people were after them, but why?

"You want a fight! You'll get it! But not here, we're not putting the lives of anyone else in risk!" replied Masakari, speaking for the group.

"Fine, follow us." Again it was the old one that spoke, before rising into the air and leading everyone away from the city.

Vvardenfell and the others watched as they flew away whilst most people fled in panic from the attack on the audience area.

They nodded to each other, grabbed the kids and flew after there comrades.

Vjad was watching the people ahead of them, there was something very wrong about these people, something not natural.

The old one spotted a large spot of woodland and decided that this would be the spot. He sent down a spell that caused a huge explosion, quickly and efficiently a large area of any trees and wildlife that had been there moments ago.

"Why did you do that? Someone might have been down there!" Vjad shouted at them.

"Perhaps you're anger will fuel you're power for your fight, I want you at your optimum power." Said the old one before landing down at the clear, somewhat flat area he had just created.

"We shall fight according to the tournament rules, only one person shall fight at any given time. You cannot see them yet but comrades of yours are on the way, if any of them interfere, I shall teleport away from here and destroy the first city I find, I will destroy an additional city everyday you do not find us and give us our fair match." Informed the old one.

"That's fine with me." Said Gratis stepping up to be the first to fight. The short, fat pale skinned one stepped up to be his opponent.

This fat little character had a confident grin, almost laughing through his teeth.

As if an invisible referee had just started the match the two ran at each other and started the fight.

The fat one took a powerful swing at Gratis who easily ducked and delivered a powerful uppercut; his opponent started to fly backwards but Gratis grabbed him by the ankle, pulled him back and kicked him into the air. He flew up after his opponent but as he was nearly up to him he sprung into action and smashed onto Gratis, smashing him down towards the floor. As Gratis fell down his adversary came down, stomach to stomach and crushed him into the floor. Gratis was stunned for a moment, in that moment the fat fellow grabbed him around the neck with both and hands, hit him with a green spell that Gratis barely felt, and lifted him up in a most crude manner, when Gratis was back on his feet the fat one hit him right on the nose with a powerful head butt. Gratis fell back but managed to flip into a position that allowed him to rush his opponent and deliver and quick and easy kick right into the balls.

The fat one keeled over temporarily and grabbed himself, Gratis started to walk over to the fat one who tried to quickly charge Gratis and punch him but Gratis twisted at the hips to avoid the punch and deliver a painful knee to the gut.

Everyone else had just touched down at this point and where asking what had happened. Masakari explained whilst Gratis focused on defending himself and making quick and easy strike's at his foe.

The two were striking at each other, far above the floor. Suddenly the fat one came flying down to the floor, he had been knocked down. They could see a large spell being generated by Gratis.

Suddenly the glowing light that was the spell disappeared as if something had interrupted him. Masakari had a bad feeling; even from this distance he could see that something was wrong with Gratis.

Masakari started to fly up to Gratis but when he was half way up the old one appeared in front of him.

"Do not continue, I will take this as an attempt to interfere in the fight." The old one stated.

"I'm just checking if he's okay, get out of my way!" Masakari said. He started to continue up to Gratis when he seemed to flinch for a moment before the old one blasted him with a pair of lightning spells that came from his eyes. Masakari was hit bad as the spell nailed him in the chest, causing him to go in a diagonal line, smashing into the floor and tearing through the floor.

The kids ran to his side, it was a nasty sight as his chest left off smoke.

Meanwhile Gratis was in the air, hands clasping the part of his chest were his heart would be. The fat one appeared behind him and with one swift elbow to the back knocked him way down to the floor.

Gratis was panned out on the floor, the fat one came down, landing his heavy ass right onto Gratis's back, causing huge agony. He stood up and kicked Gratis over onto his other side, jumped onto his chest and started to strangle him with one hand and drain the health from him with the other.

People started to move to his aid but before they had made it even a few feet, a blur appeared and cracked the fat one into the face causing him to fly an easy twenty feet before tumbling another ten feet.

The fat one was quite shocked by what had happened and it took a moment for him to get up and when he did there was a large boot mark on his cheek.

Everyone looked around for who had attacked him, soon enough Turv made his presence known.

He stood some feet from everyone else, a proud, confident, cocky grin across his face.

"He's what got in my way!" said Masakari after getting up.

"When did he get in your way?" asked Graz.

"When I was flying up to Gratis! Something got in my way, I paused for a moment to let it pass then that old bastard blasted me!"

Turv walked over to Gratis.

"What is your problem Gratis?..." asked Turv… "you took a bad injury from me when I was under the control of The Puppet Master all those years ago! I just barely missed your heart when I blasted you and Ryan! You were left a dependant wreck for months! Even Aoku was at her wits ends trying to heal you up! Yet you still decide to exert you're full power against this magicka swelled meatbag! Do you know what strain that must be putting on your heart! And then you are so wreckless that you don't even notice when he hit you with a poisonous spell right into you're neck! You'll never be the warrior you're brother is and I have to clean up with these three because you aren't looking after an injured heart! And even if you were at full health you don't have the power to win against all three of these! BUT I DO!" He screamed before kicking Gratis across to the others who carefully placed him down and let those with healing spells work their stuff.

"Get him back to Vvardenfell right now! It'll take more then magicka to heal up that heart attack and the poison might not leave his system for some time." Pointed out Turv.

"Well done Vaccanius, it is clear that Gratis is no match for us, we can finish him at the moment of our choosing, until then we will entertain ourselves by destroying the rest of these washed-up fools." Said the old one to the fat one.

"I'll finish Turv now." Said Vaccanius, the fat one.

"Aren't you being very greedy? You've already sucked plenty of energy from Gratis. But very well, do finish him." Continued the old one.

Vaccanius turned to face Turv again, who stood there with his arms crossed.

"I've watched your battle with Gratis, I've seen how you like to absorb energy, I can presume you can absorb magicka. Even so, if I can't blast you away I'll just pound you out of existence." Turv taunted.

"You know some of my moves, but I know all of yours!" Said Vaccanius.

"Oh really? Tell me does a magicka filled mistake like you feel fear!" Asked Turv as he took a stance, gritted his teeth and did something, as if he was charging something up, whatever it was he was charging it caused a ring of air blowing up around him, lifting pebbles and dirt, eventually rocks and larger stones. He extended his arms out either direction as clenched his fists, moving his arms as if to give his muscles room to flex, regardless of what he was doing it caused the cracks in the ground to shoot in the direction his arms were pointing, tearing open an already damaged landscape. Soon an aura started appear around him, sort of flickering on and off, he was exerting extreme power, the floor around pressed down and made a huge circle were he was standing, a the air blowing up made a larger circle and when the aura, similar to the blue one on Masakari all those years when he fought Ryan, but this one was more lime in colour, regardless this aura took place around him, there was an explosion of magicka from his body that sent Vaccanius flying backwards.

Went the dust had settled Turv was standing there, more relaxed then when he had been generating this huge power.

The kids looked to the other adults to see how they should react, bar amazement at this little show, everyone looked stunned. Aoku was thinking back to when Masakari had gained the blue aura, it required a very powerful spell to create it, two of these powerful spells in fact. The spell they had cast on Masakari basically just made him faster and stronger, increased his ability to regenerate energy and magicka, but he was only able to sustain it for a few minutes whilst he fought Ryan, Vvardenfell and Aoku had cast it on Masakari and they were considered among the most proficient spellcasters alive, perhaps ever, and it required it by both of them, it had drained them dry of magicka, but Turv had done this on his own, but he hadn't used a spell. The aura of lime coloured magicka was generated by the huge amounts of magicka and energy that his body was creating. Aoku took note that ever since the ritual at Levesque's, Turv's magicka was mostly lime in colour, just like Ryan's was a golden-yellow colour. Perhaps someone's true magicka was something much more personal then ever believed? It would be worth looking into but now was not the time to wonder.

"How strong is he?" asked Odium.

"Kid, when I last saw you're dad he was extremely powerful, more powerful then most of us combined at the time, I think Turv is more powerful then your dad was when he…died." Masakari replied, still letting this whole thing sink in.

"My motivation to become so powerful came from my want to be the best, the most powerful, I have no noble ambitions and lies like Ryan! I did not candy coat my training with a want to fight for my people and country! I wanted to be the best! The strongest! Like I always was before I met you're father at the start of the war all those years ago! The day I met him my world changed! But now I am powerful again! Ryan defeating the lot of us back then was like a daedra in my head! How could he be so powerful when we could not? I am from a long and noble line of commanders and officers! Combat and skills are in my blood! The intensity of my training was maddening! I had powerful wizards create a tiny dimension for me, I was locked inside this dimension, like a large room, it was at four hundred and fifty times normal gravity! At that sort of pressure the most simply training game became a desperate struggle for survival! Even the simplest moves required every will power I had! I wasn't sure how long I could sustain the effort without breaking in two! It seemed at times that the only thing keeping me in once piece was my one desire, to be better then Ryan, at times…I thought I was losing my mind…why couldn't I attain the power that he had attained? It didn't make sense! It was infuriating! And it was my fury that kept me alive! I decided to continue my training in the most far out places, if Solstheim is a dangerous island, the place I found was the darkest, most horrible realm of Oblivion! There I would be unhindered from the distractions of city life…and when a violent storm erupted I welcomed it, it seemed suiting…and outward manifestation of the storm raging in my mind! Then rocks fell from the sky! Rocks from the heavens above! From the stars! But I was determined to survive! I had to protect me ship, my only way off, my only was off that nightmarish heap of rock that was an island! I thought I had everything under control but then the mother of all rocks appeared out of no-where to claim my boat and my life! Normally destroying a large rock would be child's play, but after training at four hundred and fifty times normal gravity it took all my power…and more…I was knocked straight down a canyon, a bloody wreck…and then it happened…something snapped…something inside of me…I didn't care anymore…I didn't care about being better then Ryan…I didn't care if I lived! I didn't care about anything…and then it happened…yes that's how it happened. The sleeper has awakened! I am the greatest once again!" Turv finally finished his story.

"Enough of this foolishness!" said the old one... "You may have achieved some new power, but you are still no match for us…prove it to him Vaccanius."

"Of course." Said the fat one who quickly sent a blast of magicka in the direction of Turv, it smacked dead centre and caused quite an explosion, before the explosion had even settled Vaccanius was behind Turv blasting in another shot. When everything had finally settled and the dust cleared, Turv could be seen standing in his spot, arms casually at his side. Vaccanius rushed in and gave a kick right into Turv's face, his head swung back and Vaccanius stood back to chuckle.

Turv's head came back into its proper position before chuckling himself.

"Just as I thought, you're nothing!" Turv said tauntingly. This infuriated Vaccanius who started to float in a position so that he could effectively punch Turv in the face, he swung fist after fist but Turv just leaned back and moved his head to avoid every punch. Turv proceeded to drive his boot into the stomach of Vaccanius, digging deep into the fat, one would have expected that Turv's boot had penetrated the skin and was in fact kicking Vaccanius's guts. Vaccanius then felt an elbow drive into his face with equal force. He flew back and crashed to the floor. Turv walked up to the panned out warrior.

"What do I have here? Oh yes! The world's biggest failed experiment!" He laughed. Vaccanius just went from on his back to flying straight at Turv to head butt him, but Turv fell backwards, landing on his back and launching his feet into the air, smashing Vaccanius right into the stomach, again sending him flying off.

Turv walked up to the panned out warrior and stood right at his feet. Vaccanius was breathing heavily, clearly winded.

Suddenly Vaccanius swung off the floor and grabbed Turv by the wrists.

"I've got you know! You're power is mine!" Chuckled Vaccanius as he started to suck the health and Magicka out of Turv who stood their, confident as ever, not even doing anything as a response yet.

Vaccanius slowly got to his feet, careful not to loosen his grip or stumble.

"I'll never let go of you!" Chuckled Vaccanius.

"Oh really?" asked Turv as he lifted a leg and placed it on Vaccanius's cheek before using the grip Vaccanius had on his wrist's as a way of balancing himself before getting his other leg up, now pressing both feet against Vaccanius's face, it was now a competition of whom could last longer, Turv with his power being sucked out or Vaccanius who's arms were being stretched by Turv's feet pressing into his face.

Everyone watched in silence.

"I'll never let go!" Said Vaccanius in the best way he could with a boot in his face.

"That's the spirit! Never say DIE!" Said Turv before applying more pressure and stretching Vaccanius's arms that bit more.

Vvardenfell spotted what was going to happen blocked the children's view as best she could and told them to look away.

Sure enough there was a horrible sound followed by a blood curdling scream, Turv had ripped Vaccanius's arms off…blood poured out and Vaccanius fell to his knee's screaming in pain.

Turv casually pulled off the hands that still had their grip on him as casually as if it were a pair of gloves.

"So are you still feeling confident?" Asked Turv. Vaccanius pulled himself together best he could and ran.

As Vaccanius started to get some distance away Turv to float into the air, he went higher the further Vaccanius got.

There was a lime globe being generated at Turv's outstretched arm.

"This one's for you!" Shouted Turv before the large globe shot from his hand down at Vaccanius, causing a huge explosion and a plume shaped cloud of smoke. There was very little left of Vaccanius, Turv seemed irritated that anything was left. He came down and landed, letting his lime aura fade.

Regardless he approached the other two, the old one and the girl.

"And know for you two!"

"You fool; we are far superior to Vaccanius!" Replied the old one.

"Oh really? I have a feeling your heads will roll just as well! But if you're so confident then come on! I'm not at full power and a vicious quick attack might be enough to give you two a clear advantage and beat me." Turv said whilst he adjusted a strap that had moved into an awkward position.

The two looked at him, then each other, then him again. The old one made a signal to the girl and they suddenly darted away. When they were just out of ear shot Turv turned to the others.

"Quickly! Aoku! Throw me a restoration potion and a health potion!" He shouted.

"What?" She replied, slightly caught off guard.

"They'll get away! Quickly!" he shouted again.

She reached into a bag and pull out a few potions before throwing them at him. He grabbed them, took a big swig from each one, generated his power up to that "aura stage" again and flew off.

"I don't get it?" Ordo said.

"He was bluffing to those two, his power was way down. If they had called his bluff then he was finished but he was too convincing." Masakari explained.

Turv was flying over the woods, it was impossible to spot them like this.

"GET OUT AND FIGHT YOU COWARDS! YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN THE RITUAL! I KNOW YOU HAVE AND YOU'RE SCARED TO FIGHT AND DIE! I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT! YOU MAKE ME SICK YOU FILGHTY PIECES OF GARBAGE! YOU'RE KNOW BETTER THEN A WELL MADE DWARF MACHINE! NO! YOU'RE WORST! THE WEREN'T SCARED TO DIE!" He screamed over and over again things to this effect.

Down in the woods the two were talking.

"How can he know that we've been through the ritual?" asked the girl.

"I do not know, it is possible that he is detecting the magicka from us. Either way we will need to be a one hundred percent power to defeat him! We'll separate and look for thieves or daedra, these woods are full of them and they shall make a suitable source for energy." The old one said.

They gave each other a nod and separated, easily finding prey with their magicka and sucking them dry of their health and magicka.

**Gevaden: That's another chapter! I'm very proud of it! I got to throw in a tribute as well to one of my favourite characters so I'm quite happy! Please read and review!**


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